Mother says son, 5, choked with jump rope at Fairfield after-school program

FAIRFIELD -- A mother said she has now pulled her child out of Fairview Elementary School in Fairfield after he was allegedly choked with a jump rope by another student during an after-school program on April 16.

The Fairfield Suisun Unified School District confirmed to CBS13 that an investigation involving police is ongoing.

"Our kids are very precious to us. If you can't protect them at the school, why are we giving you our children for eight hours a day?" asked Jessica Tyo.

Her 5-year-old son Daniel Etue Jr. has a harder time communicating due to his autism. Tyo says for this reason, when he came home from school with alarming marks on his neck she was distraught, considering he could not explain to her exactly what happened.

"It's driving me insane nobody is helping my son," Tyo said.

Tyo said a school nurse evaluated her son the next morning. That nurse suggested she take him for further evaluation at a hospital, which she did.

"The principal said she found out it was a jump rope that was tied around my son's neck," said Tyo, believing it happened in the school hallway.

Tyo filed a police report with the Fairfield Police Department.

She is now working to get video footage from the cameras in the hallway to see exactly what happened to her son.

"It wasn't done with hands it was an object, that's a weapon," Tyo said.

What scares her most, she said, is that she does not know how long her son was choked with the jump rope. She is thankful the outcome was not worse.

"It's anger that I could have lost my son's life. What if I was picking up my son's body? Would they be getting away with murder today?" Tyo said through tears.

The after-school program, called "Right At School," sent out an email to parents last week.

The email, obtained by CBS13, reads:

"We are writing to make you aware of an incident between students in the Fairview after-school program on Tuesday, April 16th. The safety and security of all children in our programs is our top priority. We have been working with the district on an investigation of this incident. Thank you for being a part of our after-school community."

Tyo said that outside of the conversation she had with the school principal the morning after the incident, she has not been contacted by the school district nor has anyone that she has reached out to gotten back to her.

"It's been about ten days and I still have no answers," she said. "Nobody has called me."

She wants to know why her child was apparently targeted and why no one was watching him when it happened.

A spokesperson for Fairfield Suisun Unified told CBS13 in a statement, "We are addressing the situation with the utmost seriousness."

That is not enough to comfort parents like Tyo and her friend, Samantha Siders, who has five children attending the school and four in the after-school program.

"As of right now, all of my kids are out," Siders said.

Siders said her children will no longer attend the after-school program as what happened to Daniel hits too close to home.

"What if my son was to go here next year, the one that has a speech delay? He can't talk at all. If this happens to him, we would have no information," Siders said.

Tyo went a step further, pulling her son from the school entirely. She said the district needs to do a better job of protecting students, even in programs that happen outside of regular school hours.

"There's no protection. There was no safety concern for my son," she said. "This child got away with it the first time. What if it happens again?"

Right At School offers programming in schools all across the region and state. The program is contracted by school districts to operate on school campuses.

"I do want somebody to take blame for this. They should lose their job. Somebody should have a consequence," Tyo said.

Tyo and Siders are asking for better training for the staff on more closely watching for things like this and better protocol for immediately reporting incidents of concern.

The school district could not confirm to CBS13 if the student, or students, involved in the incident will face any consequences.

The statement sent on behalf of the district by a spokesperson reads in full:

"We are aware of reports concerning an incident during one of our after-school programs, and we understand that this is troubling for our community. We are addressing the situation with the utmost seriousness.

While we can't discuss specific details due to the ongoing investigation, we want to assure you that our administration has taken swift action. We are collaborating closely with the police, our after-school program provider, Right at School, and other relevant authorities to ensure a thorough investigation.

The safety and well-being of our students is our top priority, and we are committed to following established protocols throughout this process. We ask for your patience and understanding as we work through this sensitive matter."