'The parent should be called, and that's the bottom line'
SEATTLE -- Seven-year-old Yesenia Garcia's story is written all over her face in the form of cuts and bruises. So her mother can't quite understand why others didn't seem to feel the same way.
"If I was to send her to school with her face like this, they would have a cop at my door saying, 'What did you do to your child?'" said mother Brittney Ghorley. "But they sent her home this way and I'm supposed to be OK? It's unacceptable to me."
The second grader was at recess at Emerson Elementary School on Monday when another child tripped her. Garcia fell face first into the pavement. Right away, her nose began to bleed.
"And once I got up, it started burning," the girl said.
Garcia went to the school office, where an adult gave her an ice pack, a band-aid, and sent her back to class. No one called her mother, who only found out what happened when she saw the cuts and the bleeding at the bus stop hours later.
"I don't know what happened," Ghorley said. "Either way, somebody should have called and told me, because I'm in complete shock looking at her face."
Garcia's mom rushed her daughter to the hospital, where doctors said she had a hairline fracture to the nose.
"They had to take pictures of my face," the girl said.
The doctors X-rayed Garcia's face and told her to rest, so the bruises can heal.
But her mom believes greater damage was done because no one from the school ever called to say her daughter had been injured so severely.
"The parent should be called, and that's the bottom line," she said. "They shouldn't be scrambling around and then just throwing band-aids on kids, and sending them back to class."
Since KOMO News contacted the school district, officials have apologized to the family.
They've also admitted procedure requires a call to the parent in such situations. A spokesperson said the school will reinforce the policy to staff members.
"If I was to send her to school with her face like this, they would have a cop at my door saying, 'What did you do to your child?'" said mother Brittney Ghorley. "But they sent her home this way and I'm supposed to be OK? It's unacceptable to me."
The second grader was at recess at Emerson Elementary School on Monday when another child tripped her. Garcia fell face first into the pavement. Right away, her nose began to bleed.
"And once I got up, it started burning," the girl said.
Garcia went to the school office, where an adult gave her an ice pack, a band-aid, and sent her back to class. No one called her mother, who only found out what happened when she saw the cuts and the bleeding at the bus stop hours later.
"I don't know what happened," Ghorley said. "Either way, somebody should have called and told me, because I'm in complete shock looking at her face."
Garcia's mom rushed her daughter to the hospital, where doctors said she had a hairline fracture to the nose.
"They had to take pictures of my face," the girl said.
The doctors X-rayed Garcia's face and told her to rest, so the bruises can heal.
But her mom believes greater damage was done because no one from the school ever called to say her daughter had been injured so severely.
"The parent should be called, and that's the bottom line," she said. "They shouldn't be scrambling around and then just throwing band-aids on kids, and sending them back to class."
Since KOMO News contacted the school district, officials have apologized to the family.
They've also admitted procedure requires a call to the parent in such situations. A spokesperson said the school will reinforce the policy to staff members.