A 13-year-old boy in Columbus, Georgia, had his right leg amputated on Tuesday, five weeks after he said he was body-slammed numerous times by a teacher working at his junior high school.
The student suffered permanent nerve damage in the leg as a result, leading doctors at the Egleston Children’s Hospital in Atlanta to remove part of his limb.
The teen and his family were informed about the need for surgery this past weekend, attorney Renee Tucker told the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.
“As anyone can anticipate there was certainly an emotional response,” Tucker told the paper, adding the child will probably need counseling as well as physical therapy. “I mean, the fact that now it’s led to an amputation just signifies the degree of force that was used with regard to our client, particularly [the teacher] body-slamming him three different times.”
The alleged incident happened Sept. 12 at Edgewood Student Services Center, where the teen was enrolled in an alternative school program for students who’ve been temporarily removed from their assigned school because they violated behavior rules.
Tucker told the Ledger-Enquirer the boy was body-slammed in the classroom while trying to go to the main office so he could call his mother to pick him up.
At that point, he was stopped for unknown reasons by Bryant Mosley, who slammed him to the floor to prevent him from leaving, Tucker said. Mosley is identified in reports as a “behavioral specialist,” although the nature of his training is unclear, beyond being “specifically trained in MindSet curriculum, a system of preventing and managing aggressive behavior, and Georgia restraint requirements,” according to Valerie Fuller, the Muscogee County School District’s communications director.
The student said he continued to attempt to leave and was thrown to the floor again.
Tucker said the school’s assistant principal reportedly saw part of the incident and another employee saw the boy limping, but didn’t assist or file a report.
Although school officials reportedly told the boy they would call an ambulance, they decided to have Mosley carry him to the school bus and send him home without mentioning it to the parents.
“They placed an injured student on the school bus,” Tucker told the paper. “We don’t know the extent that the injuries were worsened by the failure to render aid and certainly by picking him up and seating him on the school bus. Then they had him ride in that same school bus home without any support or stabilization of that leg.”
Tucker said the family plans to file a lawsuit, but haven’t set the amount they will be seeking.
“We initially set a figure of $5 million based on the issues we saw at the time, mainly a fractured tibia,” she told The Huffington Post. “Now that he’s been amputated below the knee, there will be a need for prosthetics so that number will certainly increase.”
Mosley, the man accused of damaging the boy’s leg, was never actually employed by the school or the Muscogee County School District.
At the time of the incident, he was employed by Mentoring and Behavioral Services, a company that “specializes in individualizing holistic behavior approaches to produce a healthy and productive environment that fosters positive growth,” according to the company’s website.
The district is no longer using Mosley’s services, according to the Ledger-Enquirer.
“We extend our thoughts and prayers to our student who is undergoing medical treatment and to his family,” Fuller, the communications director, said in a statement. “We are committed to conducting a thorough review of the alleged incident at the AIM/Edgewood Student Services Center to determine all of the facts.”
HuffPost reached out to MBS to see if Mosley is still employed there, but have not heard back.
The Columbus Police Department said they are looking into possible criminal charges, but can’t comment as the investigation is ongoing.
This article has been updated with additional information regarding Mosley’s formal training.