Boy Hung In MD School Restroom, Parents Denounce School Reaction

WALDORF, MD — A second-grader in Charles County was hospitalized after he was hung by his jacket in a restroom by an older student, the child's mother has told media outlets. Police are investigating what the school principal called "horseplay;" the family of the injured boy disputes that description of events.

Both The Washington Post and WJLA spoke to the mother of the injured student, whose identity the media outlets have kept anonymous. The encounter happened Friday at C. Paul Barnhart Elementary School in Waldorf.

The victim's mother said she and the boy's father were initially told their son was treated for choking, which they thought meant he had choked on food. But, they were told the boy had been taken by ambulance to Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., for treatment.

According to interviews the victim's mother gave, and her social media posts, a fourth-grader hung her son by his jacket until he was found by an administrator "foaming out the mouth, unconscious."

The school’s principal, Carrie Burke, released a statement Friday afternoon, saying that the two students were "horseplaying in a school bathroom when one student’s jacket got caught on a stall door hook. The student was not able to free themselves and the other student involved was also not able to help them."

An Instagram post by the victim's mother on Saturday showed a photo of her son in a hospital bed wearing a neck brace, the Washington Post reported. “This is the most heartbreaking & traumatizing situation my family has ever been in,” the Instagram post said.

Both parents said their son was traumatized and is now recovering at home.

“If you look at my son, he has marks under his eyes, like blood vessels, he still has bruises on his neck from being choked,” the boy's parents told WUSA.

On Sunday, school district Superintendent Maria V. Navarro posted a message to families noting that the district is not covering up what happened, but the community uproar had led to threats against school staff.

The Charles County Sheriff's Office is investigating, Navarro said, and "any student who is found to violate the CCPS Code of Student Conduct faces discipline consequences."

Another parent of a second-grader at the school, told The Post the same fourth-grader had attacked her son in the bathroom the day before. Courtney Andrews said her 7-year-old told her he tried to stop the older student from hitting another child in the bathroom, and that fourth-grader began to punch and kick him.

“It seems like these bathrooms are definitely a blind spot, and the kids know it,” Andrews told the Post.

The second-grader's parents told WJLA they plan to take their son out of the school.