An 8-year-old student at Chester Community Charter School was punched in the mouth on the playground during recess this week by an unusual bully - the school's janitor, police said.
The incident was caught on video surveillance, but instead of calling the police or the boy's father, the school sent the young victim home on the bus with a fat, bleeding lip.
"They didn't call the police; they didn't notify the authorities; they didn't even send him to the nurse," said the victim's father, Valdez May. "They left him to clean his own self up."
Police said that about 11:30 a.m. Monday, the third-grader was sitting on an outdoor wall when he was approached by Jorge Alvarado-Barbosa, 18, a cafeteria janitor, who muttered something about putting the boy's brother in a headlock.
When the boy said he didn't care, Alvarado-Barbosa grabbed both of the boy's arms in one hand, and swatted or punched him with the other, police said.
In a written statement, the school's chief executive, Steven Lee, said a teacher was in the area when the altercation occurred and reported it to the principal.
"The principal, subsequently, initiated a phone call, through the student's brother, to alert the children's father," Lee wrote.
But May said that call didn't come until more than four hours after the alleged assault.
May said that he met with the principal that day but that a meeting he had scheduled for yesterday with the principal was "abruptly" called off. He said he couldn't get anyone at the school to talk with him yesterday.
His son, meanwhile, has been out of school since Tuesday, and May has no assurance that he'll be safe if he returns.
May said that earlier this year, his son's teacher was fired after she hit a student. Police confirmed the incident and said they charged the teacher, but the case was dismissed at the magistrate level.
Alvarado-Barbosa, of Chester, has been charged with aggravated assault and related offenses and was terminated from his job at the school, police said.
