The mother of Lenny Diaz, a sixth grader at Odessa Shannon Middle School in Silver Spring, is “honestly bothered” and “distraught” after her son was hospitalized after an incident during gym class that she called bullying. “I have so many emotions running through my body,” said Emily Diaz, Lenny’s mother.
Diaz spoke with MCM Monday, slightly more than one month after her son suffered serious injuries during the physical education class. He currently is home recovering, awaiting major surgery in January to re-input part of his brain that had to be removed following the incident. Meanwhile, he receives physical therapy and wears a helmet to protect his skull.
MCM reached out to Montgomery County Public Schools concerning the incident and was told to file a request under the Maryland Public Information Act. The request was denied due to student privacy concerns, according to an MCPS spokesperson in a letter to MCM.
According to Diaz, her son was playing flag football when the ball hit a female student. In what Diaz believes was retaliation, the girl apparently grabbed a pin that was holding a goalie net in place and hit him on the back of the head.
No camera captured the incident as the students were playing outdoors on the fields, she was told.
He received an open-skull fracture with fragments of his skull being forced into his brain, according to his mother. He had surgery following the Oct. 22 incident and suffered a stroke during the procedure.
What Diaz knows of the incident she has pieced together after speaking with her son, a friend who videotaped a little of what happened after he was hurt and a parent witness who happened to be in the school office at the time. According to his classmate, the student removed the pin from Lenny’s head and threw it into the woods.
“We don’t know exactly what is true,” said Diaz. She said it’s because the school “hasn’t filled her in.”
“They are not allowed to communicate with me,” said Diaz, who explained they are only in contact with her lawyer. Diaz said she is considering filing a lawsuit.
She also said she doesn’t even know if the student accused of hitting her son was disciplined. All she really knows is that she received a phone call from her son that day, which surprised her because she knows students aren’t allowed to use their phones during the school day.
“He said ‘Mom, my head is bleeding’ and then someone got on the phone and said, ‘Can you please tell Lenny to sit. He’s not listening,'” Diaz recalled.
Eleven minutes later, she received a call from the school. “It took 11 minutes for the staff to call my phone,” she said.
She rushed to the middle school and arrived about the same time her son was brought to the office in a wheelchair. She said all Principal Natasha H. Booms, Ph.D., told her at the time was that there was an incident and that a student had hit her son.
Right now, Diaz said her priority is her son’s recovery. But she also is thinking about so many other students who have been or may be injured. All she wants is for all students to learn and be safe, she said.
More parents need to speak up and not “throw it under the rug,” she said.
Monday Diaz posted the following message on Facebook:
“I’ve been kinda silent about Lenny’s situation. I need to make this bigger. My son was severely hurt by a GIRL at SCHOOL. My son was so excited to attend school that day. I packed him his favorite food for lunch (Tacos dorados). I sent him to a place where he was supposed to be safe and learning with his peers. I trusted that school and staff with my sons. The student nearly killed my SON and MCPS did absolutely NOTHING. She’s back in school like nothing happened and it pisses me the hell off that they allow this girl to go back to school after she nearly killed my baby. I have yet to hear back from MCPS or the board of educaiton about this situation. What is actually being done?”
Lenny is the second oldest of her five children, who range in age from 13 years to three months. She stopped breast feeding her infant, she said, because she was so upset and needed to be with Lenny as much as possible.
“It’s just too much. I’m fed up,” she said.
MCM also spoke with the father of a fifth grader at Sequoyah Elementary School in Derwood who allege their 10-year-old has been harassed by two classmates for several years. John Bittner alleged his son was kicked in the head and suffered headaches and nightmares as a result. He also said there is a video of that incident that he watched on school premises.
In both incidents, the alleged bullying occurred in PE class and the accused students were female.
