A Metal Water Bottle Was Thrown At My Head While At Work. School District And Admin Are Being Weird.

Location: Washington State

I work for a school district in WA state. A student overhand threw a metal water bottle at my forehead. I reported it immediately to the student's case manager and was told to fill out an incident report. I was not given the phone number for work-related injuries until 2 days later, when my headache was so bad I had to leave work.

I was sent on a field trip with the student who assaulted me the day after the incident. I told the case manager that the pain had not stopped prior to leaving on the field trip, and I was still not given the information for work-related injuries. The case manager was not planning on even talking with the student about the incident until I asked her to.

When I finally saw a medical professional, I was diagnosed with a concussion and returned to work recently after about 5 weeks off. I was previously approved to return for half days, but the district denied it. The next day, I was notified that I was losing my healthcare benefits due to not meeting the hour requirements. I then asked HR and the Principal for assurance during this stressful time that I would be able to return to the position and school I held prior to the incident, but HR told me they could not provide that reassurance.

The case manager now won't answer questions about whether she reported it to anyone in the building on the day of the incident. Immediately after reporting the injury, the principal came into the classroom, spoke with the teacher, the teacher looked at me, and pointed her to the back of the room, where the injury occurred. She is now denying that she had any notification about the injury until I left work two days after. The principal has put all of the blame on me for not reporting it to her personally the day it happened. There was a kicking incident earlier in the week, where the day following, I confirmed with the principal that the proper protocol for reporting was to report to the case manager, who would then notify the administration.

At the beginning of the school year, I reached out to the principal regarding a safety concern with lifting a disabled student (weighing over 100lbs) onto a changing table. I didn't feel it was safe for my back. She told me it was part of the requirements for the job I agreed to. I pushed and, after a lot of stress, was able to use the Hoyer lift that was already in place. The principal has had an attitude with me since then, which was the reason I stupidly did not go to admin immediately following the water bottle injury.

I feel like this has been handled poorly by the school administration and district and I am unsure how to move forward. I did contact my union president regarding the district saying they couldn't give me reassurance that I would have my job back and she was given the reassurance from them.

I still have an L&I claim open and have been recieving 67% of my pay. I am recieving vestibular therapy for the dizziness, nausea, and headaches I am still experiencing.

Should I pursue this or let it go? This process has been very difficult to navigate while healing from a concussion.