Forrest City mom wants answers after special needs son comes home bruised

Forrest City mom wants answers after special needs son comes home bruised

‘If I delivered him to school looking like that I would have DHS, state police and all kinds of people asking questions of me,” says mother

www.arns.org FORREST CITY — An Arkansas mother is sharing her story after she picked her son up from school claiming his face was covered in bruises.

Kathryn Parker says it happened back in September at Central Elementary School in Forrest City.

Parker says she’s heard three different stories.

Her son, Kamden, has cerebral palsy, epilepsy and he’s non-verbal.

She says he can’t speak for himself and knows if there was a camera inside his classroom, she would know the truth about what happened.

Opening cabinets and having fun with his mom, just a few things little Kamden enjoys.

“He is 9 years old. He has cerebral palsy, epilepsy, non-verbal, but other than that he is pretty awesome,” Parker said.

Kathryn Parker says back in September of 2018 Kamden’s school called her.

“They said he had fallen, but he was okay,” Parker said.

Thinking everything was okay, Parker picked her son up from school and was shocked to see his face.

“I seen that for the first time as he turned around and it really just upset me, startled me so upset because he couldn’t tell me what happened,” Parker said.

Parker said a school employee told her Kamden fell in the classroom.

“They told me they turned around and he was on the ground,” Parker said.

Then she heard a different story from another school employee, who told her Kamden fell into a cabinet.

“It just upsets me,” Parker said.

Wanting the truth, Parker says she heard a third story from the school’s principal. “He was outside and tripped and fell face first on the concrete without any defense,” Parker said.

Parker says she even meet with the principal.

“I tried to tell her I don’t believe her and she was like this is it,” Parker said.

Parker says she’s accepted the school decision, but wants a camera in the classroom moving forward. “I want what’s best for him and all these children who can’t speak for themselves,” Parker said.

Parker says when this all happened, she immediately took Kamden to the hospital to get check out and doctors told her he would be okay.

Parker says it’s tough to send her son to another school or keep him at home because she is a single parent with other kids.

The Forrest City School District’s released a statement.

“Due to the privacy rights involved, we cannot release any student related information. We have undertaken an appropriate investigation of the allegations presented,” Kendall Owens, Public Relations Director for the Forrest City School District.

From the Arkansas News Service