JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Only on Action News Jax – for the first time, we’re hearing from the mother of a child who was sent home from school after having her teeth knocked out
It happened at Beauclerc Elementary School last September. Nearly five months later, April Wallace said her daughter, Brooklyn, is still missing her teeth and still has no answers.
Now, she plans to file a lawsuit to hold the school district accountable.
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<
[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]
“Any time I take pictures of her, it’s like ‘Mommy, let me see, like I don’t want to show my teeth,’” Wallace said in tears. “And for Christmas, she told me all she wanted was to get her teeth fixed.”
On September 20th, Wallace got a call saying her daughter had her two front teeth broken at Beauclerc Elementary.
“I have a child that is already struggling and then her teeth get knocked out,” Wallace said.
The nurse report she got that day says, “The student was taken down to the floor by an adult where she broke her two front teeth.”
Wallace said no teacher could explain what happened, but Brooklyn, who is in a special needs program, told her it started when another student hit her in the face with wooden blocks.
“And so the second time she did it, she got up and pulled the child’s hair,” Wallace said. “When she did, they made all the other kids go out of the classroom so I asked Brooklyn and asked is that when this happened, and she said, ‘no, they waited till all the kids got out of the classroom, he came up from behind me and picked me up and slammed me.’
A few days later, Wallace spoke with a detective who claimed it was an accident.
“The detective said that the teacher said… he was trying to restrain her and he basically tripped and fell,” Wallace said.
Two witnesses backed that up.
“Right now, it’s my daughter’s words against the school district and I believe my daughter because her story never changed.”
Today, Duval County Schools said the teacher is still employed with the district, and the investigation has concluded. Action News Jax Annette Gutierrez found that he has transferred to another school that specializes in special needs and disabilities.
Read: ‘It’s heartbreaking’: Oceanway parents given unexpectedly long timeline for new school
“I’m having to home-school her now because I will never trust Duval to educate my child,” Wallace said.
Wallace said her daughter is still in pain and she’s on an eight month wait list for a fix.
“They need to fix her teeth,” Wallace said. “I trusted them to take care of my child and they didn’t.”
Wallace filed an insurance claim against the school for damages. She said she is still waiting to hear back on that.
Action News Jax put in a records request for the details of the investigation and have also put in a request for the teacher’s personnel file.
Beauclerc is in school board member Cindy Pearson’s district. She released the following statement Thursday:
“Any time a child is hurt, my first concern is for the well-being of the child. Mom-to-mom, I hope that the student is ok. As a board member, it would be inappropriate for me to address a specific case because it would prejudice my role in the employee disciplinary process. However, I can say that the board has instituted strong policies and procedures for handling professional standards allegations. It is my full expectation that the superintendent and his team have followed those procedures in this situation.”
Read: Duval County’s first and only book challenge ready for consideration
[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.
