The facial disfigurement of a 13-year-old Chicago public school pupil during an off-campus knife attack by two schoolmates has prompted an investigation by administration officials into the school’s response to the incident, including whether favoritism was shown to one assailant because her mother is the local school council’s president.
The victim, Markeisha Stewart, 13, who will be an 8th grader at Arai Middle School in the Uptown neighborhood, needed 200 stitches to close wounds to her cheeks, nose and ears–slashed by what authorities said was a box cutter or steak knife. A local plastic surgeon who is donating his services expects the girl will require surgery and treatment for up to a year and says she always will need makeup to cover the scars.
Following the May 4 attack, two other Arai pupils, whom relatives said are cousins, pleaded guilty to aggravated battery in Juvenile Court, a spokesman for the Cook County state’s attorney said.
The school council president’s daughter, now 13 years old, is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 25. The other girl, 14, was sentenced Tuesday to 2 years probation.
The school, however, took no disciplinary action against the girl whose mother, Pamela Barton, is the Arai Local School Council’s president. The other girl was suspended for 10 days before being expelled by the school board on June 30.
Schools chief Paul Vallas said he was “appalled” upon being told by the Tribune on Tuesday about the incident and its aftermath. He said expulsion proceedings would begin immediately against the daughter of the LSC president and added he would take disciplinary action against Arai Principal Anthony Scott, who could face removal from his job.
Vallas said that the principal failed to file an incident report with the central administration and also violated the school’s expanded zero-tolerance policy, which makes off-campus violence by students grounds for expulsion. An Arai School report later filed in the expulsion hearing of one girl did not mention the name of the LSC president’s daughter, even though police reports did name her as an offender, Vallas said.
Vallas said he is considering removing Barton as LSC president because of her role in the Arai administration’s handling of the event and two unrelated incidents.
Barton would not comment. Scott said he followed proper procedures in the case.
Internal records at Arai, 900 W. Wilson Ave., showed the current and previous principals declined to take disciplinary action against the LSC president’s daughter even though school board officials said there was a history of misconduct by the girl, board officials said.
But Samuel Kidd, an Arai administrator in charge of discipline, said the LSC president’s daughter was serving a suspension for another fight at the time of slashing.
School board officials said they had no record of such disciplinary action against the daughter.
Vallas said that Principal Scott “obviously took steps to withhold information and to at least ensure action was not being initiated” against the LSC president’s daughter.
“We expanded the uniform discipline code to include off-campus behavior over a year ago, specifically for these types of incidents. It’s a blatant, blatant disregard for the code. And it’s infuriating,” Vallas said.
“The evidence suggests favoritism here,” Vallas said. “We will be contacting the (victim’s) family and we will be offering to relocate her in another school.”
Scott said he believed he followed the board’s discipline code. “We’ve gotten no complaints on the disciplinary actions we’ve taken. We followed the uniform discipline code,” Scott said. He declined to comment further
The mother of the girl who was expelled could not be reached for comment. Alan Mills, a lawyer with the Uptown People’s Law Center who represents both offenders in the slashing, said a history of antagonism between the cousins and Markeisha was initiated by Markeisha.
“There’s no question Markeisha got very badly hurt, and nobody’s happy about that,” Mills said. But he charged the slashing incident was started by threats from Markeisha.
Both offenders had been allowed to return to school after the incident and were escorted in the halls by teachers or other personnel to prevent further conflict among the three girls, according to one teacher escort, John Sullivan.
Markeisha returned to school two weeks after the attack, but she said she left school after a few days because of the trauma of seeing her attackers in the halls. She completed the academic year with a home-school teacher.
The incident had been the subject of intense discussion and debate at the school, especially in the weeks after Markeisha returned to school.
“I think she should have been expelled or some note made,” Bonnie Fuqua, who ran unsuccessfully in April’s LSC election, said of Barton’s daughter.
“If you’re going to suspend one, you should suspend both. But that didn’t happen because Pam is very vocal and belligerent.”
The slashing occurred May 4 about 3:05 p.m., shortly after pupils left school, police said. Markeisha encountered the two other girls in front of a restaurant two blocks west of the school.
In an interview, Markeisha admitted tension existed between her and the two cousins, dating back to last year when she competed on a rival dance team during a Chicago Park District football game. Markeisha’s dance team frequently beat the cousins’ team, and jealousies grew from there, she said.
During the slashing, the daughter of the LSC president gave her cousin either a box cutter or steak knife, and the cousin then cut Markeisha’s face repeatedly, a police report said.
Witnesses told police the LSC president’s daughter told her cousin to carve an “M” on Markeisha’s face, but the slashes didn’t appear to follow any organized fashion, police said.
Seven thin-line scars cross all over Markeisha’s face–some short and some long, including one that runs from the corner of her mouth, across her nose and up to her forehead.
After the incident, she walked around her family apartment, one block east of the school, with a white T-shirt over her head until her mother, Monica Stewart, persuaded her to stop. In one interview, Markeisha sometimes touched a big scar across her cheek, but in a later interview, she lost that self-consciousness but was reticent.
“It’s just ugly,” Markeisha said softly, her wide eyes focusing straight ahead, her fingers stroking the streaks of pink jetting across her face. “They said if the medicine doesn’t work, then (the plastic surgeon) will do more surgery. It’s scary.”
Dr. Myles Goldflies said he spent 2 1/2 hours sewing up her face.
Goldflies said Markeisha has shown a strong will. “I was impressed with her composure,” Goldflies said, “but I wondered if she was trying to be too stoic. Is she holding back so much she’s ruining herself?”
Markeisha’s mother said she was thinking of moving the family to another Chicago public school, though her decision may change with the investigation announced Tuesday.
Now, three months after the incident, Markeisha is showing signs of strength, though it sometimes wanes.
“I’m not going to cry,” she said. “I’m done with all my crying. I’m not mad at them. I know what comes around goes around. I’m just trying to be a kid. I don’t want to fight no more.”
