Attacked student's mom speaks out

FORT WAYNE, Ind., (WANE) - The mother of an attacked DeKalb High School student is speaking out, after another teen's punch sent her 16-year-old son to the Intensive Care Unit of Lutheran Hospital.

"It should be out there for the other kids to realize you just can't do this," she said. "My son could have lost his life, over nothing."

The woman has asked NewsChannel 15 to keep her and her son's identities private, while they come to terms with the incident.

The teen was attacked at school last Friday around 11:00 a.m. The 15-year-old student accused of throwing the punch has been arrested on an initial charge of battery.

DeKalb County Police say he tried to start a fight with the woman's son. Her son did not want to fight and tried to walk away. According to police, that's when the student punched him in the head.

The mom knew something was wrong after receiving a frantic call from the school.

"I felt sick, like my heart had been ripped out sick, because my boys are all that I have," she said. "They said that it was life-threatening, that there was bleeding on the brain and that he had to be transported right away."

The teen was first taken to DeKalb Memorial Hospital and later transferred to Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne. He was discharged on Monday, and is now recovering at home.

"I'm super glad that he's alive and he's thankful that he's alive, but as a 16-year-old, he really lost a lot. He can't be active anymore. He can't get hit in that spot ever again, or it will be fatal," she said.

The mom tells NewsChannel 15 that the family had recently relocated from Las Vegas. Because her son dressed and talked differently, he was a target for bullies almost immediately.

"He was being called names, about his clothes, about being 'ghetto', and 'gangsta'," she told NewsChannel 15. "He doesn't think he did anything wrong. He thinks he did the right thing by walking away."

The mom denies reports that her son had threatened the student, and others before the incident. She also denies claims that her son's injuries have been blown out of proportion.

"It's a life-threatening injury. He can never get hit in the head again, he was in the ICU," she said. "I don't think it's over dramatized at all. It was an attack, someone's brain is bleeding. It's not just a punch in the eye, it just shouldn't happen at all."

According to the mom, the teen had also been attacked just four days earlier. She says a different student shoved him in the hall and hit him in the face. At that time, she thought the school would address the bullying before it went too far.

She says,"My son is who he is, I don't want him to change for anybody, I want him to be who he is."

Moving forward, the mom says she plans to pull the teen and his younger brother from DeKalb High School. It's unclear whether she plans to pursue legal action against the teen who threw the punch.

The suspect is currently being held in the Allen County Juvenile Center.