Dist. 33 officials 'grieved' over incident that injured student

West Chicago school officials say they are "deeply grieved" about an incident that left a 12-year-old boy hospitalized.

But the mother of the injured seventh-grader says it's "too late" for apologies.

Rocio Velazquez insists that officials at West Chicago Middle School responded improperly to the Tuesday afternoon assault that left her son, Isidro, with a fractured skull, broken nose and facial cuts and bruises.

"I am upset because the staff at the school didn't follow the right procedures, like calling 911 and giving him the appropriate attention," Rocio Velazquez said from her son's room at Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield.

In a statement issued Friday, West Chicago Elementary District 33 officials said Isidro was "assailed" by another student at dismissal time outside the school.

Isidro was walking in the parking lot when another seventh-grader came up from behind and placed him in a choke hold, his mother said. Despite Isidro's efforts to give up, the other student choked him until he lost consciousness and fell face down on the concrete.

Superintendent Ed Leman said he doesn't believe the other student was trying to physically harm Isidro.

"It wasn't a friendly act," he said. "He wasn't doing it because he was best friends with him. But neither was it an attempt, consciously, to cause this kind of injury, in my opinion."

West Chicago police said they are investigating. And District 33 officials are conducting their own probe to reconstruct what happened.

"Is there anything in our procedures that might have prevented it or could have been followed better?" Leman said.

Contrary to claims from the family, Leman said a West Chicago police officer stationed at the school was on the scene "within seconds." He said school officials were trying to contact the parents when they reached the school nurse by calling Isidro's cell phone.

Still, Rocio Velazquez said she doesn't accept the district's assurances that the middle school is a safe place. She says her son is afraid to go back.

"I have a million questions in my head that don't have answers," she said. "Right now, it's too late for them to say, 'I'm sorry.'"