Mother outraged at Columbus school’s response after assault sends 11-year-old to hospital

*Attached video: Cleveland crime by the numbers

COLUMBUS, Ohio ( WCMH ) – When Katt Johnson reached Eastland Performance Academy, she was appalled to learn the school still hadn’t called an ambulance.

“I’m taking care of my son who’s just about passing out in my arms and he’s absolutely hysterically hyperventilating,” Johnson said. “I’m like, ‘Where are the police?’ And nobody’s answering me.”

Johnson said on Oct. 8, her 11-year-old was assaulted at school with a teacher present. She intends to press charges against the middle schooler who allegedly assaulted her child, but many of her concerns extend to how Eastland Performance Academy staff handled the incident.

“Not only did I have to tell them twice to call an ambulance, the school never called the police,” Johnson said. “That is also suspicious to me, especially considering the fact at how brutally my son was assaulted and no one stopped it.”

After staff fulfilled her request for a medical transport, she accompanied her son to a hospital, where she asked a social worker to call the police. When she finally spoke with Columbus police officers, she learned the school never called them, despite her multiple requests.

According to the police report, Johnson’s son said another student grabbed him by the throat, threw him into a window, began to punch him repeatedly and slammed his head onto a desk. The student said he lost consciousness and woke up to the assault continuing on the other side of the room, the report said.

“My poor son tells me, ‘I begged him to stop. When I went unconscious, I thought I was dreaming, but I woke up and I was still being hit,’” Johnson said.

Johnson said he was hospitalized overnight because of a skull fracture, ruptured eardrum and bruises. Photos provided to Fox 8 News sister station NBC4 show him bleeding from inside his ear and wearing a neck brace in his hospital bed, and Johnson said recovery will take months. A week after the incident, Johnson said he still cannot hear out of his left ear.

Johnson said that as far as she knows, the alleged attacker had not spoken to her son before.

Superintendent Jeff Luelleman said staff are cooperating with requests from law enforcement while “addressing a possible physical altercation between students.” Luelleman did not address the staff’s alleged delay in calling emergency services or that a teacher was present, although the latter detail is included in the police report.

“The school has conducted an investigation regarding the allegations, and administrators will move forward in accordance with its disciplinary code of conduct to the extent appropriate,” Luelleman said.

NBC4 acquired the code of conduct, which says penalties for assault can range from a discussion with parents or in-school suspension to expulsion up to a year. Luelleman said he could not comment further due to privacy law restrictions.

Johnson said she wants justice for her son from the school, his alleged assailant and the teacher who was present, who she said should have done more to intervene.

“I don’t understand how you can be standing 10 feet away and not notice such a severe assault happening,” Johnson said. “There are other things that she could have done to protect my child that she did not do, and it’s unacceptable.”

“The school is taking steps pursuant to established procedures to ensure EPA [Eastland Performance Academy] remains a safe and productive learning environment for all students,” Luelleman said.

Johnson said she is awaiting further action between the school and police but plans to move forward with charges or a lawsuit.

“I took him to the store with me yesterday, and it broke me just watching him in a constant state of panic watching everything around him,” Johnson said. “This will never fully be over for him. He will always carry that trauma.”

For now, Johnson said her son will be homeschooled once he is cleared by his doctor to resume his studies.

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