Corona boy hospitalized, recovering after being stabbed in knee with pencil at school, mother says

CORONA, Calif. (KABC) -- An alleged case of bullying resulted in the hospitalization of an 8-year-old Corona boy, and his family is now demanding answers from his school.

Carter Flores has been in constant pain for almost a week following an alleged incident at Corona Ranch Elementary School that his mother said goes beyond schoolyard bullying.

Madeline Flores said her son was allegedly stabbed in the knee with a pencil on May 25 and the puncture became infected.

"The way we found out that Carter was very sick was because he was very lethargic," Flores said. "He spiked over 103 fever and he started throwing up."

She said Carter was rushed to Loma Linda Children's Hospital where they found out he was battling an aggressive form of Strep A bacteria. Since then, the second grader's had two surgeries and fluid drained from his knee.

Attorney Michael Jeandron represents the Flores family. He said, "We're taking a look at all the facts trying to figure out exactly who did what and when."

Jeandron said the family claims Carter's teacher and school officials were aware of the bullying and promised to do something about it.

"She told me that she would keep the boys separated in class at all times, made sure that they weren't together on the playground so I was being promised that it was being prevented."

Jeandron added, "The problem was they didn't implement their own plan and they allowed Carter to be stabbed with a pencil by another student and now Carter is struggling to recover; to fight for his health and get better."

Corona-Norco Unified School District said they have completed an investigation into this incident and have determined it was an accident.

In a statement the district said:

"We are saddened to hear the student's injury is worse than originally thought, and we wish him a speedy recovery. In CNUSD, we take all allegations of bullying seriously and they are fully investigated, as we believe school should be a safe place for every student to learn and grow."

Flores said her son's bullying could have been stopped and hopes action is taken to prevent it from happening to others.

"They deserve to be able to go to school and be in a happy and healthy environment and their only worry at 8 years old should be having fun," she said.

Flores said Carter is expected to have at least one other surgery and will be on antibiotics up to six weeks to ensure all the bacteria is killed.

Also, there's a GoFundMe page set up to help the family with medical expenses.