An assistant principal, Candra Rogers, was left blind in one eye and may lose it completely after an incident involving a middle school student at Collins Intermediate School in Corsicana on August 15.
Rogers was responding to a report of students fighting in a classroom when the aggressive student threw several chairs at her, which she managed to dodge.
However, a clothes hanger thrown by the student struck Rogers in the eye, according to the New York Post.
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“The hanger hit me in my right eye and knocked it out of the socket,” Rogers told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday 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 to Rogers’ eye was so severe that paramedics at the scene decided she needed to be airlifted to a hospital.
She has been left blind in the affected eye, and if doctors determine the damage is untreatable, the eye will have to be removed.
“I am still believing God for a miracle for restoration of my sight,” Rogers said.
She will require reconstructive surgery on her eyelid following the assault. One student was taken into police custody, and the incident has been referred to the Navarro County District Attorney’s Office and the Juvenile Probation Department, with charges expected to be filed.
The student has also been banned from returning to the campus, according to a statement from the school district.
Rogers, who started at the Corsicana district last semester, is married to Eugene Rogers, the new football coach at Corsicana High School.
There is no estimate for when she will return to work. She has called for better protection for educators at both the district and state levels.
“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 criticized Texas Governor Greg Abbott and the state legislature for refusing to increase public school funding, despite the state’s $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.”
