Police hand over case of middle schooler's assault to Clay Count - KCTV5

Police hand over case of middle schooler's assault to Clay Count - KCTV5



LIBERTY, MO (KCTV) -

For the first time after a 12-year-old boy with Asperger's syndrome reported a brutal attack inside a Liberty school cafeteria, the superintendent is answering questions.

The superintendent says at this point in time he believes school staff did everything they could when Blake Kitchen, 12, was reportedly beaten in the Liberty Middle School cafeteria. He says they are working closely with law enforcement and social services.Liberty police say they took a juvenile suspect into custody on Feb. 19, the day of the attack, and released him or her to juvenile authorities on that same day. Their assault investigation concluded on Wednesday and the case was forwarded to the Clay County Family Court to be handled through their juvenile system.

Blake doesn't want to talk about the day he was assaulted. It's too hard.

“Scared,” Blake said.

“You're scared to go back to school,” says a KCTV5 reporter.

Blake responds by shaking his head yes.

Blake is undergoing tests to see if he will have permanent hearing loss. His mother says another student smashed her son's head into a table, fracturing his jaw and ear drum. Blake was leaking spinal fluid and had to be hospitalized for five days. According to his mother, the serious injuries came at the hands of an eighth-grader who had allegedly been bullying Blake's older brother for some time now.

"Any more hits in the head, he could've killed him," Blake's mother Destiny Kitchen said. "Any time they moved him he would vomit. Dry heaving constantly, just dry heaving. Him crying and saying it was so painful and that he was afraid he was going to die. He was like ‘I don't want to die.'"

Blake, who has Asperger's syndrome, ADHD and an anxiety disorder, tried to sit at a table and was confronted by another boy. That's when he says the boy who had been bullying his older brother confronted him.

Kitchen says surveillance video shows Blake being punched in the face, picked up and body slammed and kicked after he'd already blacked out.

She says she sent a certified letter to the school warning them about the student she says attacked her son.

"Our response varies depending upon the seriousness of the matter. In this particular incident that response is heightened. Unfortunately we cannot share all of that information with our community and our parents," Superintendent Jeremy Tucker said.

Tucker says school officials are bound by student confidentiality laws. KCTV5 asked him to respond to Missouri State Sen. Eric Schmitt's comments on the attack, who said the school failed to protect the boy from a bully.

"I am seriously disturbed by this. My question to this school and to this principal specifically is why didn't you do your job?" said Schmitt, a Republican from Glendale.

"I appreciate Sen. Schmitt's passion on the issue. We are equally passionate about it. I think this creates an opportunity for dialogue," Tucker said.

The superintendent says he would encourage the state senator to consider all sides to the incident because the school district can only say so much.

Blake will undergo the first of several hearing tests this Friday.

Liberty police have been investigating the alleged assault. They would not give the exact age of Blake's alleged attacker.

KCTV5 searched through district policy and found if a student assaults another person and it is their first offense they can be punished ranging from a principal/student conference, to detention, to in-school suspension, to up to 180 days out of school suspension or expulsion.

Punishment for bullying ranges from detention, to in-school suspension, or one to 180 days out-of-school suspension.

Copyright 2015 KCTV (Meredith Corp.) All rights reserved.


Read more: http://www.kctv5.com/story/28213571/police-arrest-made-in-assault-of-middle-schooler-with-aspergers-syndrome#ixzz3TLDMlnyv

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