Corsicana youth who assaulted school administrator waiting to be sentenced
WACO, Texas (KWTX) - A Corsicana middle school student who blinded a school administrator during a violent classroom attack in August 2024 is waiting to learn his punishment.
A Navarro County jury found the aggravated assault allegations against the boy to be true during a trial in late November in 13th State District Court. A verdict of true in juvenile cases equates to a guilty verdict in adult felony courts.
Jurors found the boy, who was 11 at the time, attacked former Collins Intermediate School Assistant Principal Candra Rogers during a violent outburst in which he threw chairs and a wooden coat hanger as Rogers and another administrator tried to defuse the incident.
The hanger knocked Rogers’ right eye out of socket and she was blinded in the assault. Her eye was surgically removed.
After the trial, which included testimony from Rogers, Judge James Lagomarsino ordered a background report on the boy to be conducted by probation officers, which the judge will review before sentencing him. No sentencing date had been set Friday, but a Navarro County official said sentencing likely will be after the holidays.
In Texas, juveniles can be certified to stand trial as adults if they are at least 14. The judge can sentence the boy, who is not in custody, to a term of probation or he can send him to a Texas Juvenile Justice Department facility.
He also has the option of determinate sentencing, a hybrid system for serious juvenile offenders who commit violent crimes where the youth begins his sentence in a TJJD facility but can be transferred to the adult prison system when he turns 18 to complete the term.
Aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury is punishable by up to 20 years in prison in adult felony cases.
Rogers declined comment on Friday.
Navarro County District Attorney Will Thompson said his office likely will present additional testimony at the sentencing hearing.
In an interview with KWTX earlier this year, Rogers said she has forgiven the student who blinded her.
“I’ve forgiven him. I had to,” she said. “I am angry with the student. I am angry with the student’s parents. I am angry with our state system because no educator should go to work and end up being airlifted to a hospital.”
The incident happened during lunch when a behavioral teacher at the school radioed administrators for help with an aggressive student.
Rogers said she was the first administrator to arrive at the classroom and encountered students and the teacher outside the room. A student who was assaulted by the boy was holding his head, she said. The other boy remained in the classroom.
“I entered and found the student was still irate and found the room ransacked with overturned furniture. I knew I had to be as calm as possible, and I spoke (to the student) lowly and slowly,” Rogers said.
The boy picked up a chair and acted like he would throw it, Rogers said.
“He finally did throw it at me but I caught it midair. He picked up another chair to throw at me when another assistant principal entered the room,” Rogers said. “I used the first chair to block the second. He picked up a third and threw it at the other assistant principal and I used that initial chair to block the one that he threw at her.”
After blocking the chair, the student threw a wooden hanger at Rogers and she “could not stop it fast enough,” she said.
In July, Rogers became the school district’s family and community engagement coordinator for
Wraparound Services.
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