Wednesday, August 28, 2024 - An assistant principal was left blind in one eye after an “aggressive” middle school student threw a clothes hanger at her face.
Candra Rogers was responding to a report of students
fighting in a classroom at Collins Intermediate School in Corsicana on Aug. 15,
2024, when the child threw several chairs at Rogers, which she dodged, and then
a hanger, which pierced the principal’s eye, WFAA reported.
“The hanger hit me in my right eye and knocked it out of the socket,” Rogers told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday, August 27, in her first remarks back at the school.
“I grabbed my face while blood was pouring out of my head
and stumbled out of the classroom door,” the educator recalled.
The injury was so severe that paramedics who responded to
the school decided Rogers needed to be airlifted to a hospital.
Rogers was left blind in the eye, and it’s likely permanent,
she said. If it’s found to be untreatable, doctors will have to remove her eye.
“I am still believing God for a miracle for restoration of
my sight,” Rogers said.
She also must undergo reconstructive surgery on her eyelid.
One student was taken into police custody after the alleged
assault, school officials said in a press release on Monday, August 26.
The incident was referred to the Navarro County District
Attorney’s Office and the Juvenile Probation Department and the school expects
charges to be filed.
The student has also been barred from stepping foot on
campus, the district said.
Rogers joined the Corsicana district just last semester. Her
husband, Eugene Rogers, began his first season as Corsicana High School’s
football coach this year.
Officials did provide an estimate for when Rogers is
expected to return to work.
The assistant principal on Tuesday said that the district
and state need to do a better job of protecting educators.
“We should never have to fear being in a classroom with an
aggressive student,” Rogers said.
“Overly aggressive students need services to meet their needs, but I do not believe the safety of other students and the educational staff should suffer,” she said.
She faulted Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the state
legislature’s refusal to increase public school funding despite a $32 billion
budget surplus.
“It is important, to point out that the decision to continue
funding Texas public schools at 2019 levels in 2024 is a choice,” Rogers said.
“The collateral damage of Governor Abbott’s choices include
but are not limited to academic struggles, student discipline struggles,
teacher retention challenges, stifling program advancements, loss of student
enrichment programs, lessening of needed student support, erosion of parent and
external stakeholder trust, decreased student engagement.”
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