HOUSTON – One Cy-Fair ISD mother is hoping the district can do more to protect her son after an altercation at school left her son with major injuries requiring dozens of stitches and plastic surgery.
Jessica Wade is a mother of three and her middle son, 13-year-old Tremaine is her shy sweet boy.
“He’s very sweet. He loves basketball,” Wade said. “He’s quiet, well-natured. It’s hard for me to go through this with him. None of my kids would deserve this but especially not him.”
On September 29, her 8th-grade son had to be taken to the hospital after an assault inside a supervised classroom at Campbell Middle school. It all started, Wade said, when another student started picking on Tremaine. Eventually, it turned physical.
“He was choked to the point of being unconscious, thrown to the floor. When I arrived at the school, I had to rush him to the ER,” Wade said.
He had broken teeth, with some crushed into his wound, his mother said. His lip was detached from part of his face. She said his injury required major medical work including an all-liquid diet for 9 weeks.
“He had severe lacerations to his face. He’s had 30 stitches in his chin area and his mandibular bone was broken,” Wade said.
To this day, she said the district could not tell her what happened to her son’s face.
“This happened on school grounds in your classroom...not on the playground...nobody can tell me what happened?” Wade said.
She says video circulating through the school showed the chokehold and her son dropping to the floor. The family filed charges against the student for felony aggravated assault and with working with prosecutors. Meanwhile, her son’s recovery continues.
“We’ve seen plastics surgeons, oral surgeons, we’ve been to the endodontists,” Wade said.
Thinking this chapter was behind them, Wade and her son worked on recovery and Tremaine began to get used to going back to school. However, a few days before Christmas, Wade got the call that the student who allegedly assaulted Tremaine was back on campus. Wade made multiple efforts to ask the district to keep the two students separated, but to no avail, she said.
“They said that they cannot deny education to any student in their district,” Wade said.
She was baffled.
“At what point would anyone think it’s okay for him to be on campus with my baby after what he’s been through. If not for him having any physical threats against him but just mentally for my son mentally being able to thrive,” Wade said.
Wade and District Attorney prosecutors asked for a protective order this week, Juvenile District Court Judge Natalia Oakes denied it. Instead, Wade said, the district offered its own stay-away policy.
“The district tells me they have a no-contact order put in place,” Wade said.
Cy-Fair ISD stated to KPRC:
The District deeply regrets that Tremaine was injured at school, and the student who engaged in the misconduct was assigned the maximum disciplinary consequences for the incident according to the Student Code of Conduct. The District has worked with both students and their parents as well as the District Attorney in an effort to address this matter and provide a safe learning environment for all involved while the criminal matter is pending. Both students have been offered campus transfers and declined. A “stay away” agreement is in place to separate the students and prohibit contact at all times during the school day and at any school-sponsored event. Failure to follow the agreement will result in immediate suspension and further consequences. Campbell Middle School will continue to take every precaution to ensure the safety of its students and staff and work with both students and their families in this difficult situation. The substitute teacher in the classroom when the assault occurred is no longer in the District.
Wade questioned the district’s response.
“I am very upset with their comment that we offered a transfer. Nobody has offered nor discussed the details of how that would work. That... really upset me,” Wade said.
In addition, she said that she was disappointed to see that Tremaine and the other student had the same lunch period in the cafeteria and have seen each other on several occasions passing by.
“I want him removed from the school. I want my baby to be able to go not feeling anxious and not feeling stressed,” Wade said. “The district can’t predict what’s going to happen either, so it just makes sense that they cannot be in the same building.”
Wade said she is stuck in a situation.
“The [district] has failed.... tremendously,” Wade said. “I have to send him to school tomorrow to a building with someone... who we have pending charges against who put him through this traumatic experience and it just is what it is.”