A Texas educator said she forgave a sixth grade boy who permanently blinded her in one eye during an attack four months ago and used the incident to urge state leaders to make necessary changes in the education system. Candra Rogers told local news outlets that the attack happened in August, just four days after the start of the school year at Corsicana Independent School District’s Collins Intermediate. Candra Rogers forgives sixth grader who attacked her with a hanger, but calls out the school system that failed them both. (Credit: Vide Screengrab KWTX) “At lunch, I was sitting with one of the teachers,” the 56-year-old assistant principal told KWTX. “I heard a call over the radio from our behavioral class needing some assistance.” Rogers rushed to the classroom and saw the teacher and every student standing outside the room, except a sixth-grade boy who was still inside. She said the boy had gone on a rampage inside the classroom and attacked another student. “I entered and found the student was still irate and found the room ransacked with overturned furniture. I knew I had to be as calm as possible and I spoke lowly and slowly,” Rogers said. The student began throwing chairs at her, which she managed to dodge, but then the boy picked up a wooden hanger. “He found a hanger and he threw that and I couldn’t block that fast enough, and it caught me in my eye and knocked it out,” Rogers said. “It was pouring, blood was pouring. When I touched my eye and looked at it, it was just covered in blood.” Rogers said the attack left her eyeball hanging out of its socket. However, despite the critical injury, she remained calm. First responders were called to the school and Rogers was airlifted to the hospital where she underwent surgery to have the eye placed back in its socket. Doctors debated removing it but decided to leave it in the hopes that she would regain her vision. However, those hopes have since waned. Rogers reported that months after the attack, she “can’t see anything.” “Everything is black,” she stated. “I’m still not driving. I am having to learn to adapt.” She’s scheduled for another surgery in January to have her eye removed and replaced with a prosthetic. Since the attack, Rogers said she’s now undergoing counseling to try to navigate the feelings of anger that haven’t subsided since the incident. The student who attacked her is no longer enrolled at any Corsicana school. District officials said in August that they referred the incident to the Navarro County District Attorney’s Office and the Juvenile Probation Department. They anticipate that “the DA’s office will take additional steps to address the student’s action through the juvenile court system.” Rogers said the young boy still has not apologized to her, and although she doubts he ever will, she has forgiven him. “I’ve forgiven him. I had to,” she said. “I am angry with the student. I am angry with the student’s parents. I am angry with our state system because no educator should go to work and end up being airlifted to a hospital.” However, Rogers channeled those feelings of frustration into constructive calls for change in the state’s public education system. Shortly after the attack, she held a news conference where she accused Texas Gov. Greg Abbott of withholding critical public school funding that would give schools the resources they need to provide better services to students with behavioral issues so that altercations similar to the one that wounded her don’t have to be a norm for other educators. “I believe in public school education, but what happened to me should never happen to another educator,” Rogers said. “Mr. Abbott, release the funds because you are also culpable for what happened to me.” She demanded that part of a 30-year-old statute in the Texas Education Code that protects marginalized students regarding how they are disciplined should be “reevaluated so that no other teacher, principal or educator is ever put in this position.” “Chairs do not, should not be thrown in school, but that happens every day across the country. That’s not OK,” Rogers said. “School is a place to come to learn, to thrive, to achieve things you didn’t think you could. It’s not a place for ducking chairs or hangers.” She underscored how underfunded, understaffed, and underserved the state’s public schools are. She also included a message to parents, urging them to pay more attention to their children. “Give them the attention that they need,” Rogers stressed. “What we, as educators, are encountering are children who have been raised by electronics.” Rogers shared that her injury has upended her entire life and she’s having to depend on family more often now. She’s unsure if or when she’ll go back to work, but says the remaining motivation to return is because of children she wants to help succeed. “To save the one. To help the one,” Rogers said. “If there is one that I can help, then the one.” ‘Pouring, Blood Was Pouring’: Texas Educator Reveals Shocking Details About Meltdown from Sixth Grader Who Threw Hanger That ‘Knocked Out Her’ Eye; Shifts Blame to School System