Assistant Principal Describe Losing Eye in Student Attack

Corsicana, TX (WorkersCompensation.com) – An assistant principal said her eye was knocked out of the socket when she was attacked by a student last month.

Collins Intermediate School Assistant Principal Candra Rogers was attacked with a wooden hanger on August 15. Police said Rogers was hospitalized after the incident, which happened when she entered a classroom where a student “disruption” was ongoing. Rogers was airlifted after the attack to a Dallas-area hospital for treatment.

Rogers told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth, KWTX, and CBS News that she could lose her eyesight in one eye as a result of the attack.

Rogers told reporters she walked into the classroom after a behavioral teacher called for assistance on the radio. She said two students had been in an altercation. One student who had allegedly been assaulted by the other was outside of the classroom with the teacher and other students, while the alleged attacker was in the classroom holding his head.

“I entered where the student was still irate and found the room ransacked with overturned furniture. I knew I had to be as calm as possible and I spoke low and slowly,” the assistant principal said.

The student threatened to throw a chair at her, she said. 

“He finally did throw it at me but I caught it mid-air,” Rogers said. "He picked up another chair to throw at me when another assistant principal entered the room. I used the first chair to block the second. He picked up a third and threw it at the other assistant principal and I used that initial chair to block the one that he threw at her.”

The student then threw a wooden hangar at Rogers, which found its mark.

“The hanger hit me in my right eye and knocked it out of the socket,” Rogers said. “I grabbed my face while blood was pouring out of my head and stumbled out of the classroom door.”

Rogers said she was airlifted to Parkland Medical Center in Dallas and underwent immediate surgery for her eye.

"Doctors were able to reinsert my eye, however, they determined I had been blinded, and currently believe my [eye] damage is permanent," she said.

She will have to undergo additional surgery, she said, to repair her eyelid and that removing her eye may be an option.

According to a news release from the Corsicana School Independent School District, "The student has been restricted to a specific location and cannot be on campus."

"The matter has been referred to the District Attorney’s office and the Juvenile Probation Department. CISD anticipates the DA’s office will take additional steps to address the student’s action through the juvenile court system," the release said. The district said it had not confirmed when Rogers will return to work.

The school said it will work with law enforcement and the District Attorney’s office, as well as work to protect its staff and students.

“Our focus remains on Mrs. Rogers, her family, and our students and staff at Collins,” CISD Superintendent Stephanie Howell said in the release. “This incident affects our whole district, as well. We want our teachers and staff to feel safe at work, just as we want our students to feel safe in school.” 

The district said it and the DA’s office were prevented from providing more details to the public because of several factors, including “privacy rights of the victim, privacy rights of the juvenile and the ongoing investigation.”

“We are not going to shy away from being open to the public, but we are going to follow the law first,” Howell said, per the release.

Rogers told reporters that what happened to her should never happen to educators, and that the Texas Education Code dealing with student discipline may need to be reevaluated to “address the mental, social and emotional well-being of these students.”

“We care about students and their safety,” Rogers said. “But we must also care about the safety of our educational staff. Our safety is important, too. We should never have to fear being in a classroom with an aggressive student.”

The school district had said they would hold a “Jeans Day” fundraiser to help the Rogers family. A GoFundMe account set up for Rogers and her family to help with medical expenses had reached $20,815 of its $60,000 goal by Sept. 4.

Share This Article: