ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – Imagine waiting for your child to come home from school. You receive an alert that the bus has left the school, then get a call from an unknown number stating that your child has been injured and you need to meet the bus immediately.
That’s what happened to Ashleigh Sargent last Thursday.
When she met the bus, she found her son, Grayson, holding paper towels to his head, blood running down the side of his face.
“He was holding paper towels onto his head, blood everywhere down his side of his face. I couldn’t tell, is this multiple injuries? Is it one? What are we looking at? What are we dealing with?” Sargent said.
Grayson, who’s a 5th grader at Wards Creek Elementary School, told his mother he was sitting on the bus talking to friends when someone slammed a backpack down on his head twice.
The school resource officer and St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office visited Sargent’s home the same day. She said she had made it clear that she wanted to press charges, but says she never received a follow-up about the next steps.
Sargent added that she believes the investigation only gained traction after she posted about the incident on social media over the weekend.
“We don’t need social media outrage. It should not have taken me making a post on social media for you to do something to protect children,” she said.
The St. Johns County School District issued this statement about the situation:
“The Wards Creek Elementary School administration and the St. Johns County School District transportation department investigated this incident. Appropriate disciplinary actions have been taken in alignment with the Student Code of Conduct and behavior that interferes with student safety and wellbeing will not be tolerated. The parent has received communication from the school and district office administration as well.”
Paul Abbatinozzi, Chief of Staff for St. Johns County Schools
But Sargent said the district has not communicated with her as promised.
“What was Paul’s statement? The parent has received communication? No. The parent is waiting for communication. The parent is begging for communication, actually. Begging. Please. We want to go back to school. We just want to be safe there. And we want everyone’s children to be safe,” she said.
Until Sargent receives confirmation that her son’s attacker has been removed from the bus and disciplined, she will not send him back to school.
“I’m terrified to send my son back to school. If that child is in that school, my son will not be there,” Sargent said.
News4JAX followed up with the district for more information and is awaiting a response.