NEW IBERIA, La (KLFY) — A New Iberia teen nearly died after a group of students attacked him in the bathroom at Westgate High School.
The teen’s mother says the assault left him with a severe concussion, and doctors had to wire shut his broken jaw.
Despite her son’s injuries, school officials never called an ambulance for him after the attack. Instead, they drove him home, bruised and bloodied.
The teen and his mother, who says she’s angry with how the school handled the situation, especially since the entire assault was caught on video.
The video, which was captured on the cell phone of one of the ten other students who plotted this attack, shows 17-year-old Mauricio Brown being attacked in the bathroom by another student at Westgate High School.
After Mauricio was attacked, the students left him unconscious on the bathroom floor.
“He goes to one of the teachers, he sees that he’s bleeding and they took him to the vice-principal. They had somebody look at him,” Maurico’s mom, Yamile Corrales, said.
Mauricio’s mom says the assistant vice principal said his injuries weren’t severe and offered to drive him home.
“He got home and he could barely talk. he was mumbling and mixing up words. that’s mindboggling as a parent that they see this student bleeding profusely in severe pain and they don’t think the immediate action they should take is contact the emergency room.”
His uncle brought him to the E.R. immediately, where doctors said Mauricio had a severe concussion and a broken jaw.
“He was assaulted. He is severely injured. He’s drinking out of a straw for the next six weeks. He has his mouth wired shut,” his mother said. “Thankfully, in a way, his tooth was knocked out, because it’s really difficult when your mouth is wired shut to be able to drink anything. He puts the straw in through this area and thats how he gets any liquids in.”
While Mauricio recovers at home, being forced to drink only liquids and communicate through only text messages for six weeks, his mom says his attacker was only given a 3-day suspension.
“He’s not being protected by the system. The system is failing him right now. Picture you being in this situation where you have people that are meant to take care of your children and they are dropping the ball. They’re stating hey your child’s okay let’s drop them off at home if he would have died who would be responsible for this?”
News Ten did reach out to the Iberia Parish school system but have not received a call back.
Mauricio Brown’s mother says she and their attorney had a meeting with the school district Wednesday morning to discuss the incident.
She also says the school district cancelled the meeting when Mauricio’s family started sharing his story on social media the night before the meeting.