13 year-old black teenager Montravious Thomas must learn to navigate life as an amputee after a brutal beating from a white behavior therapist named Bryant Mosley.
The incident occurred on September 12 at Edgewood Student Services Center, an alternative school for children with behavior issues in Columbus Georgia. According to his family, the teenager wasn’t known to be violent and was sent to the alternative school to serve a four day suspension after a dispute with a student at his regular school.
According to the police report, Mosley is listed as a behavior therapist for the AIM program which helps troubled children who have been displaced from their normal schools. It was Montravious’ first day at the alternative school and that afternoon he tried to leave the classroom to call his mother. When Montravious tried to leave, the teacher tackled him. Mosley told police officers he was responding to the boy’s behavior when he body slammed him several times.
Later that day, Montravious (unable to walk) was carried onto the bus and sent home without medical attention. What’s worse is the school never notified his mother despite his severe injuries. Not only was Montravious suffering from a fractured tibia, but his knee was dislocated. That evening, Montravious’ mother took him to the local ER before he was airlifted to a children’s hospital in Atlanta. Despite his doctor’s efforts to restore blood flow to the leg, nothing could be done about the permanent nerve damage and amputation was deemed the best option.
According to Renee Tucker, the attorney representing Montravious and his family, at some point Mosley had the boy face down on the floor with his full weight on top of him. Tucker says if the boy had went to this hospital sooner his right leg may have been saved. Montravious is expected to stay in the hospital for another thirty days to recover.
“As anyone can anticipate there was certainly an emotional response,” said Tucker, who said the child will probably need counseling in addition to physical therapy. “I mean, the fact that now it’s led to an amputation just signifies the degree of force that was used with regard to our client, particularly (the teacher) body-slamming him three different times.”
Bryant Mosley is no longer employed at the school and no arrests have been made yet. School officials are still investigating the incident. Tucker says that Montravious’ family plans to sue the school within two months for failure to alert his parent’s of the incident and not seeking medical attention for the boy’s injuries.
