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Teacher allegedly flings stapler, leaving teen with 4 stitches

A teacher at Swenson Arts and Technology High School in the Northeast is under investigation for allegedly throwing a stapler at a freshman student's head, resulting in a wound that required four stitches.

Michelle Ball with son Ahmad Pone, 15, who received four stitches above left eye. (Alyssa Cwanger / Staff Photographer)
Michelle Ball with son Ahmad Pone, 15, who received four stitches above left eye. (Alyssa Cwanger / Staff Photographer)Read more

A teacher at Swenson Arts and Technology High School in the Northeast is under investigation for allegedly throwing a stapler at a freshman student's head, resulting in a wound that required four stitches.

Ahmad Pone, 15, was on his way back from the bathroom Friday afternoon when he stopped at the doorway of a classroom to chat with a friend, according to his mother, Michelle Ball.

Because the class was unruly, he thought it may have been on a recess, but when the male teacher told his student to sit down and told Pone to leave, they followed his requests, Ball said.

As Pone was walking away from the classroom, he heard a student say, " 'Watch out! He's throwing something!' " Ball said.

When Pone turned around, he was hit above the eye with a stapler thrown through the door by the teacher, Ball said.

"The next thing he knew, he just saw blood coming down his face," she said.

Other students took Pone to the nurse, who called Ball and told her that Pone would require stitches, although she wouldn't tell her why.

"I want to know: Why wasn't my son taken to a hospital?" Ball asked. "His shirt was covered in blood and he'd went through 10 gauzes by the time I got there."

Ball took her son to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where he received four stitches above his left eye, she said.

Fernando Gallard, school district spokesman, confirmed the report, but denied that it was a direct hit.

"It was reported to the school that a teacher allegedly threw a stapler at a student in a classroom," he said. "The stapler bounced off the wall and hit the student on the forehead."

Gallard, who declined to name the teacher, said he has been reassigned to an administrative office pending a "full investigation."

The response wasn't enough for Ball, who pondered what might have happened if the tables had been turned.

"If my son would have hit the teacher, he would have been arrested," she said.

Ball said the man who allegedly threw the stapler teaches freshman language arts, but that her son has never been his student.

She said she would accept an offer from the district to provide her son with a home tutor for the remainder of the school year.

"I sent my son to a school further out where I thought he'd have a better education," said Ball, who lives in Point Breeze. "Now, I'm looking for another school. I don't want him intimidated by the students or the faculty there."