The Superintendent of the Norristown Area School District is speaking out about a Montgomery County mother's allegation that the district hasn't done enough to help her bullied son.
Dr. Janet Samuels spoke to NBC10 Monday during an off-camera interview less than a week after we spoke to the mother and her 11-year-old son.
The 11-year-old 6th grade student, who we are not identifying, told NBC10 the attacks occurred at the A.D. Eisenhower Middle School in Norristown. The boy said he was physically assaulted by two teens several times, the most recent attack occurring in mid-October when he was jumped on his way home. He has not returned to the school since then.
“I also had to go to the E.R.,” he said. “I got a fractured nose. I also had a nose contusion and my eye was really swollen. The first time I got hit during computer class. The second one they shoved my face into paint. They bit me once."
NBC10 obtained letters the boy’s mother wrote to Dr. Samuels describing the attacks and asking for the boy to be transferred to a different school. Other documents sent to the District were letters from a counselor and the Victims Services Center of Montgomery County informing the District that they were working with the boy.
On Monday Dr. Samuels told NBC10 the District has investigated all of the boy's claims. She also said she received a report stating the boy was bitten after he first put his hand over the face of another student.
Dr. Samuels also said she never received any reports of the boy being shoved into paint after speaking with the child's art teacher. She also claimed she received a different account of what occurred in the computer class compared to what the boy told NBC10.
Dr. Samuels did confirm the boy was punched by a student outside the middle school on Oct. 13. She said a witness saw the attack and it was reported to police. She also said the student who punched him sent him a letter apologizing but the boy hasn't received it since he hasn't returned to school.
Dr. Samuels also confirmed she did write a letter denying the family's request to transfer the boy to a new school, calling it a last resort method. Dr. Samuels told NBC10 that of the school district's 7,169 students, only 109 have been relocated to other schools and none of those cases were due to bullying.
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Finally, Dr. Samuels said she has tried several times to personally meet with the boy's family but hasn't heard back from them yet. Dr. Samuels told NBC10 she is trying to get the family to send the boy back to school and truancy proceedings are underway.
Meanwhile, anti-bullying advocates who are working with the boy said they are trying to get him enrolled into a cyber charter school.
