CHECOTAH, Okla. — School should feel like a safe place for kids, but a mother in Checotah is refusing to send her 10-year-old son to class for fear of his safety.
Karen Magreevy says her son came home from school Monday afternoon with a burn mark on his arm.
She says the mark looks like some one put out a cigarette on her son.
“He did not have anything on his arm when he left for school,” said Magreevy. “Then we noticed at 4 p.m. that he has this awful mark, like a cigarette burn. I immediately was so angry.”
Magreevy then texted her son’s third grade teacher who said she didn’t know what could have happened.
“He is in a special classroom with one teacher, four aides, and only nine students,” said Magreevy. “There is no way no one knows what happened.”
The following Tuesday morning, Magreevy kept her son at home but spoke with the Checotah School District Special Needs Director and visited the Marshall Middle School principal.
“If there is a remote chance that there is abuse or the parent is not satisfied with the investigation we turn it over to law enforcement," said Checotah Public Schools Superintendent Monte Madewell. "Safety of students is the most important thing we deal with."
Magreevy says student safety should be better monitored.
“The problem is that we just don’t know, they need cameras," said Magreevy.
Superintendent Madewell agrees with Magreevy's suggestion, but says money is the issue.
"Cameras are pretty expensive, and we’ve looked at the possibility," said Madewell. "I think there’s a good possibility that will happen but it probably won’t be this particular school year.”
Madewell says the district has already spent around $55,000 on camera's in some of the district's buildings this school year.
"That's the reason it won't be this year because we've already expended so much money be cause we've got four sites that we are trying to put cameras in in all the unseen places that we have on campus for student safety," said Madewell.
Until those camera's are set up in the special needs classroom where her son Alex goes to school, Magreevy says she'll be home schooling him.
2 Works for you reached out to the Checotah Police Department. They said the investigation into Alex's alleged burn mark is ongoing.
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