'I’m just angry' | Mother in Prince George's County pushing for change after daughter and other students assaulted at school

OXON HILL, Md. — This holiday season one local mother is pushing for changes in Prince George’s County Public Schools.

After her daughter, Kayla Caldwell, was beaten at Potomac High School, her mother was explaining Tuesday why she’s spending her Christmas holiday petitioning for her daughter and other students.

“I’m just angry,” Juanita Caldwell said. “I just want to get something done. I don’t care about a holiday season.”

Juanita Caldwell is turning her frustrations into a push for policy changes.

Earlier this month, Juanita Caldwell's 14-year-old daughter, Kayla Caldwell, was punched in the head on the floor of a utility closet at the school in Oxon Hill.

She has a broken nose and hand and bruises all over and, not to mention, emotional scars.

“Physically she’s healing, mentally she’s having little nightmares, or she gets overwhelmed or had anxiety,” Caldwell said.

WUSA9’s original story with Caldwell pushed another student, too terrified to share her identity to come forward about the same students.

“To know that I was not the first and there’s a huge chance that I wouldn’t be the last had I not said something deeply concerned me,” the student said.

WUSA9 also recently learned about the latest reported incident on Dec. 17 when a boy was assaulted by several other students.

Prince George's County Public Schools sent WUSA9 a statement saying:

“The Dec. 17 fight at Potomac High School involved a small group of students. Administrators communicated directly with the students and families involved in the incident, and appropriate disciplinary actions were taken as outlined in our Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook. Due to FERPA privacy laws, we are unable to provide additional information ... We do not have additional comments at this time on the Dec. 5 incident.”

For Juanita Caldwell this statement only fanned the flames. 

“It made me so angry, that was the true reason why I create the petition,” Caldwell said.

Caldwell started this petition in her daughter’s name in hopes of change moving forward. She’d like to see an immediate arrest of the students responsible, transfer of the case to the state attorney’s office and an investigation into Potomac High School’s staff and safety protocols.

“They’re still reaching out, trying through social media so I feel like she’s still dealing with this incident, it’s still ongoing for us,” Caldwell said. “I have to figure out some type of educational plan for my child because I’m honest to God afraid of what’s going to happen at Potomac.”

Caldwell also sent a letter to local officials and now Prince George's County councilwoman Krystal Oriadha is hosting an emergency town hall to discuss the state of schools in the county Jan. 8.