Schools aren't held accountable

You may have read, or watched on the news that a London boy was punched in the head by another student. As recounted by the victim's parents, the School didn't take the head-injury seriously. The battered student was asked to sit for 30 minutes before being examined by the principle. Even as the child asked to go hom, he was made to sit and wait for the principal.

Story here: London Free Press

It turned out that the victim had a fractured skull and brain damage as a result of the incident.

This issue resonates with me, as I too had a head-trauma issue when I was in elementary school, and neither the teacher nor the principal took my issue seriously enough to call an ambulance.

My story begins with a 6 year old Stephen walking across the monkey bars in the school playground. I thought it would be fun if I were to climb up top of the monkey bars and walk across them instead of hanging from them like a normal monkey child. As the recess bell rang, I started my decent from the bars, in anticipation of the post-recess class room line-up and head-count. Unfortunately, I was jarred on my way down the monkey bars, striking my forehead on one bar and the rear of my head on the other. As I fell to the ground, unconscious. I don't know how long I was outside, but I do recall a couple of classmates, lifting me up to carry me to class. Upon my arrival, my Grade 1 teacher promptly yelled at me for missing the recess bell. I was made to sit on the carpet away from my friends. My teacher, Ms. Divincenzo didn't bother to ask me where I was after the recess bell. She just assumed that I was tardy because I as playing. The funny thing is that my class at the time had a direct window to the playground. Had she looked out the window, she would have seen my laying in the sand. Instead, she yelled at me an assumed that I was just being a bad kid. As I sat on the carpet, and made to feel guilty for injuring myself, I began to experience some discomfort, that soon resulted in projectile vomit being spewed on to the Brown, Yellow and Orange shag carpet. From that point on, I don't remembe much. I only recall my parents being arriving at the school office and my father yelling at Mr.Brian, the principal at the time. My father was quite upset. He must have travelled from Downtown toronto Station A (Now the Air Canda Centre) to come collect me, a drivethat would normally take at least 30 minutes.

Luckily, in the end, I was merely concussed and without serious harm. My issue with all this is that any issue that involves a developing child's brain sholuld be take extremely seriously. The longer you wait, the more damadge could be done. My story could have turned out worse. If I had severe brain traume, and were to wait over 30 minutes before being taken to the hospital, the end result could have been far more grim.

My ask is that people responsible for our children should take these typs of injuries far more seriously.