DELTONA, Fla. – The mother of a Volusia County high school student is lashing out against the school district and her daughter's teacher after the teen's hair was ripped out during an accident in wood shop class--and 911 wasn't called.
Kayla Carrera, a 17-year-old student at Deltona High School, was in wood shop class on Wednesday when her hair was ripped out by a drill press machine.
"Her hair got caught," said her mother, Lissette Carrera. "A student came over to help and was tugging on her hair this way."
Carrera said Kayla is on pain medication and her head is swollen from her hair being pulled out all the way to her scalp.
"I was so hysterical," Carrera said. "It's so impressionable and it didn't merit that to be an emergency. That's when my heart was crushed."
Carrera said she knows the district policies because she's a teacher herself and she says she would have reacted differently and called 911.
"As an educator, I'm also a mother and I'm a mom first," she said. "I would never place a child in jeopardy like they placed my daughter."
Carrera said her daughter admits she should have had her hair pulled up, but didn't. Carrera also questions why teachers didn't enforce the safety policy.
The school district opened an investigation on Thursday morning to see if the teacher took appropriate action and had appropriate supervision in the classroom when the accident happened.
Carrera said she also met with the principal at Deltona High and the shop teacher on Thursday to discuss what happened. She said the school is looking into making safety changes in the classroom and and possibly add another teacher to supervise.