Vice-principal says she lost sight in one eye after being attacked by a student

CORSICANA, Texas (KWTX/Gray News) – The assistant principal who was flown to a hospital by helicopter after a student was attacked earlier this month said she is blind in her right eye after it was knocked out of its socket in an attack.

Candra Rogers was attacked at Collins Intermediate School when a school behavior therapist radioed the school administration for help in dealing with an aggressive student.

Rogers said she was the first principal to arrive at the classroom and found students and the teacher outside the classroom. She said a student who was attacked by the aggressive student was holding his head. The aggressive student remained in the classroom.

“I came in and saw that the student was still angry. The room was full of overturned furniture. I knew I had to stay as calm as possible and spoke softly and slowly,” Rogers said.

Rogers said the aggressive student picked up a chair and pretended to throw it away.

“He did eventually throw it at me, but I caught it in mid-air. When another vice principal entered the room, he picked up another chair to throw at me. I used the first chair to block the second one. He picked up a third one and threw it at the other vice principal, and I used that first chair to block the chair he threw at her,” she said.

The student then threw a wooden coat hanger at Rogers and she “couldn’t stop him fast enough.”

“The coat hanger hit my right eye and knocked it out of its socket,” Rogers said. “I grabbed my head as blood poured out of my head and stumbled through the classroom door.”

She was flown by helicopter to Parkland Medical Center in Dallas. There, she underwent surgery and doctors were able to put her eye back in place, “but believe the damage is permanent.”

“I was blinded,” she said.

Rogers said more surgery is needed to repair her eyelid and doctors may have to remove her right eye.

“This tragedy has not only affected my husband, children, family and friends, but it has also negatively impacted my school district and my community,” she said.

The student involved in the attack was “restricted to a specific location and is not allowed to be on campus,” the district said.

According to Corsicana ISD, the incident has been referred to the Navarro County District Attorney's Office and the Juvenile Justice Department.

The school district “expects that the district attorney's office will take further steps to pursue the student's actions in juvenile court.”

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