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Sixth-grader stabbed in face with broken pencil at Illinois middle school

Candice Leshoure said she rushed to Glenview Elementary School after a classmate stabbed her son in the face with a pencil. (Photo Provided/WQAD via CNN)

EAST MOLINE, Ill. (WQAD) — A mother in East Moline says her son doesn’t feel safe at Glenview Elementary School after a classmate stabbed him in the face with a broken pencil.

Candice Leshoure said that she rushed to the school as soon as she learned that her 11-year-old son was hurt. Just before gym class on Monday, a sixth-grade girl stabbed him in the face very close to his eye.

“I was like, Oh, my God, this happened with another student?” Leshoure said. “And they said, ‘Yeah,’ and I said, ‘Well where was everybody?’”

Leshoure’s son said he had an argument with the girl before she attacked him with the pencil. Seeing the cut on the boy’s face, Leshoure pulled him out of school and took him to the doctor. She hopes facial glue will help prevent a permanent scar.

“I was afraid I was going to get stitches,” said the injured student. “I was thinking of that in my mind, so my heart just dropped and I felt like I was on a roller coaster.”

Leshoure said the girl involved received a one-day in-school suspension. Glenview Middle School would not comment on the boy’s injury or disciplinary measures for the girl.

“I do feel like if the shoe was on the other foot, and he cut a kid, and by him being a male, it would have been a very extreme punishment,” Leshoure said. “And I do not think one day would have satisfied (anyone) — not the superintendent, not the school and not even the other child and their family.”

Glenview Middle School told News 8 that the situation remains under investigation.

In the meantime, Leshoure worries about her son going back to class with the girl who hurt him.

“I don’t feel like he’s safe there,” she said. “I don’t feel like there’s enough staff, and, if there is enough, I don’t feel like they’re doing what they need to do to keep our kids safe.”