Pennsylvania dad demands answers after son, 5, has teeth knocked out in bloody assault at school, lawyer says
A Pennsylvania father is still demanding answers nearly a week after a special needs student allegedly assaulted his 5-year-old son at an elementary school, leaving his child with a bloody facial gash and missing teeth, his attorney tells Fox News Digital.
David Langsam, of Injury Law Partners, is representing Steve Callahan and his family after Callahan blasted the Keystone Elementary School and Bristol Township School District over how school officials handled the situation involving his son, Grayson, in a viral TikTok video last week.
Langsam said that Grayson, who is in kindergarten, suffered a facial laceration and lost a couple of teeth when a fourth-grade special needs student attacked him at the school.
"It’s probably the most disconcerting thing to take your children to a place where they’re supposed to learn, where they’re supposed to be safe and then get a call that something as horrible as this has happened to them," Langsam told Fox News Digital.
Callahan explained in his TikTok video, which has amassed millions of views, that the May 16 attack "was no accident" as the school initially led him to believe.
"A teacher’s aide who works with special needs students in the county was not paying attention, and not handling the child she was supposed to and a fourth-grade special needs student attacked my son," Callahan said the school principal later told him. "The special needs student grabbed my son by the back and threw him headfirst into a table which caused all the damage to the face."
While the incident was captured on surveillance video, Langsam said the family has still not been allowed to view the footage.
"Some folks in the local police that have done an investigation, that have reached out to the family just to let them know that they’ve had the opportunity to see the video, that it’s disturbing, but so far our requests to access the video haven't been met with much success," Langsam said.
A week after the alleged assault, the Callahan family is still seeking answers as to how Grayson was injured.
When Fox News Digital contacted the Bristol Township School District, a spokesperson deferred comment to the Bucks County Intermediate Unit (BIU), which holds a special education program that shares space within Keystone Elementary School.
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A BIU spokesperson confirmed to Fox News Digital that one of its students was involved in an incident with another student at Keystone Elementary School and that they have launched an investigation in full cooperation with the school district.
BIU is in contact with the families of both students and the school district’s administrative staff, and will take appropriate action based on the outcome of its investigation, the spokesperson said.
Langsam said that the Callahan family hopes that they can affect some kind of change in the system so that "the next parent doesn’t get this type of phone call."
"While the physical injuries are bad, obviously, the emotional injuries, it’s going to take some time to really understand the extent of them, and they very well may dramatically trump what happened to him physically," Langsam said of Grayson.
Callahan said in his TikTok video that he is not sending his son back to the school. He also added that he is not pursuing legal action against the special needs child or their parents, laying blame squarely on the teacher’s aide.
"I have a 5-year-old who doesn’t want to go to his kindergarten graduation because he’s too scared to go to school because he thinks something is going to happen to him," Callahan said in the video. "What would you do if you were me?"