Florida mom Fatiha King claims her 8-year-old son, Bryson, went to school on September 19, 2025, completely healthy. She reportedly received a message from the school nurse about an incident with another child on the playground, but it was nothing urgent. King knew it involved a jump rope but assumed it wasn’t a big deal. When she saw her son later that day, she was shocked.
King told WFLA that as soon as she saw Bryson, she was worried about what had happened to him.
“He comes home with not just a scratch. I mean, an abrasion and no one can tell me why [or] how this happened?” King told the news outlet. “The wound started to open up, so I did take him to the emergency room because he had so much swelling.”
At first, Bryson told his mom the injury was the result of an accident, but King didn’t buy that. A few days later, Bryson admitted that a child had hurt him.
“My son is on the spectrum. He has sensory issues. So, I don’t know what was going on to where he was not comfortable telling me the truth,” she said.
As any mother would do, King went to her son’s teacher to try to get the story straight. The teacher, however, didn’t offer much help, telling King only that they’d heard kids had played with the jump rope and that Bryson wanted to see the nurse. Unfortunately, that was all she got from the school.
WFLA wanted to help and reached out to Hillsborough County Public Schools, hoping to get a straight answer. Tanya Arja, chief of communications for the school district, responded with a statement.
“During recess, the school maintained appropriate supervision on the playground. As soon as staff became aware that a student had been accidentally injured, the supervising teacher promptly had the child see the school nurse. The nurse then contacted the student’s parent to inform them of the incident,” the statement reads.
“While accidents can occur even under careful supervision, our staff responded quickly and responsibly to ensure the student received immediate care and that the family was notified without delay,” the district’s statement added.
King retained a lawyer, William Franchi, to help her get to the bottom of what really went on that day. Franchi told WFLA his team is working to determine whether someone hurt Bryson intentionally or accidentally.
“We are at this time investigating and looking into potential legal action,” he told the news outlet. “I hope that the school is willing to cooperate and that we can come up with an amicable, amicable resolution that avoids, a big legal mess, but that we can figure out what happened, what went wrong, and what needs to be changed because it’s pretty clear something needs to be changed.”
King shared a photo of Bryson’s injury on Facebook that has since been made private and received a great deal of support from family and friends.
“So sorry that happened to him I hope someone pays for this you are in my prayers,” someone shared.
“I’m so sorry this happened. I pray for healing mentally and physically,” another person expressed. “My grandson attended that school last year and he experienced racism and the administration is well aware of the issues.”
As moms, we can’t imagine how hard it would be to see our child with that kind of injury and not know the truth. Hopefully, someone will do the right thing and speak up soon.
