High School Student 'Scalped' With Power Drill
LA GRANGE, Ill. (CBS) - It's an incident that has one family steaming mad. They say it started with a student playing with a power drill on Tuesday. It ended with a female classmate essentially being scalped.
CBS 2's Pamela Jones says the family doesn't think the school is taking the matter seriously enough.
It doesn't take a lot to see it: four inches by about two inches of smooth skin right in the middle of Luz Gonzalez's head.
"It was all gone," Gonzalez said.
She says it happened yesterday. Gonzalez says she was helping to build a set for a play in stagecraft class at Lyons Township High School. She says another student grabbed a drill, pointed it at her head and pulled the trigger.
"I just thought someone was pulling my hair, like joking around," said Gonzalez. "Then like my head just snapped back. When I touched it, a big wad of my hair just like fell on the floor. And then I started like freaking out."
Her parents were upset, too. They took their daughter to the hospital. The diagnosis: scalping of part of the skin.
"If that drill would have entered her skull, then it would have been her brains wrapped around that drill, not her hair," said Ronald Gonzalez, Luz's father.
He says the school's assistant principal explained that it was all an accident and the student would be suspended.
"A 20-year-old student, apparently with problems, and they said it was an accident," said Ronald. "And I just kept thinking, did the drill fall out of his hand and land on top of her head? How could it be an accident?"
On Wednesday night, Luz Gonzalez worked the counter at a Brookfield pizza parlor, hiding under a winter hat to avoid questions from the curious.
"I have to have the hat on," she said. "Or I don't want anyone to see a big bald spot on my head."
But each time she steps in front of a mirror, there's a painful reflection.
"I can honestly say, it's like devastating to me. And it gets me so mad," she said.
CBS 2 contacted the school, but so far, administrators have given no response on the issue.
Luz Gonzalez's parents say they've filed a police report, because in the end, they say their daughter may need costly hair transplants or surgery. They believe the school or the student who was holding the drill should have to pay.
We're told that student was given a five-day suspension.
