Antioch Family Upset About School's Handling Of Daughter's Injury
CHICAGO (CBS)--A Lake County family is seeking answers after a kindergartener was injured at school and no one called her parents.
The Antioch 5-year-old actually suffered a broken wrist, but wasn't even checked out by the school nurse.
The accident happened at Hillcrest Elementary School while the child, Violet DeRuntz, was playing with another student during recess.
Her parents say they understand children get hurt. What they can't understand is why no one from the school notified them.
"I'm furious," said Scott DeRuntz, the child's father. "I am utterly furious."
DeRuntz claims Violet wasn't even sent to see the school nurse after falling during recess last week.
"She got hurt bad enough that the playground supervisor noticed," DeRuntz said.
But when her teacher asked Violet if she was okay, Violet said she was, so she stayed in class for an hour or so before catching the school bus home.
"There's a level of incompetence there that I think needs to be addressed," DeRuntz said. "I have no doubt that if the nurse would have seen this, that we would have gotten a call."
Instead, DeRuntz didn't learn about the injury until he met Violet at the bus stop.
"She got off the bus and I could tell something was wrong," he said. "I look down at her hand and it was all swollen."
The worried father rushed her to Rush her to the emergency room, where he learned Violet had a fractured wrist.
DeRuntz said he met with the school principal the next day, but was provided with no answers as to why things were handled the way they were or about why his daughter wasn't checked out by the school nurse.
"It could've been so much worse," DeRuntz said. "What if this had been a head injury?"
DeRuntz said he accepted that he was helpless for what happened during the hour and a half Violet sat in class with her injury, but said he wants to make sure it never ever happens to another child.
No one from the school district responded to requests for comment.
