One day in April of this year, TikToker Ashley Shadwick (@ashleynacole2014) went to pick up her two kids from their after-school program in the East Tennessee region.
When she arrived at the building, she found out that her 11-year-old daughter had been assaulted by a 16-year-old boy.
Her son was already waiting in front of the building when she got there. The director of the program came up to the front to talk to Ashley, but she only managed to get one sentence out before a group of kids ran around the corner and announced that a child had been stabbed in the head with a pool stick.
Another kid ran up and told Ashley that her daughter was really hurt, so of course, Ashley took off running to find her. Her daughter was across the hall in the teen room, which Ashley always had concerns about because she thought there wasn’t enough supervision for that age group.
She saw her daughter holding brown paper towels up to her head. She was screaming and covered in blood. Everyone else was also screaming.
“So, I shove her head up against my chest as hard as I can, and I’m basically carrying her outside,” said Ashley.
“Meanwhile, her little brother, my son, is screaming because he’s freaking out. He’s panicking, thinking his sister is literally dying in this very moment because there’s that much blood.”
Ashley quickly called her husband to tell him to meet them at the hospital. Then, she called emergency services and notified them of the situation.
Once they got to the hospital, they were met by police, who immediately started to ask questions. When the nurses unwrapped the paper towels from her daughter’s head, Ashley finally noticed how bad the injury was.
“She was hit directly in the head with a pool stick,” said Ashley. “She has about a five-centimeter laceration across her forehead with muscle tissue exposure. It was very deep.”
Her daughter’s story to the police was that a boy had swung the pool stick at her head like a baseball bat, unprovoked. She had been partially sitting on the pool stick when he yanked the stick up. The counterweight broke the pool stick, and it stabbed her in the forehead.
However, the trauma on her head did not match her story. Ashley reiterated to her daughter multiple times that she needed to tell the truth so they could press charges. She insisted that she was telling the truth, and her story has not wavered one time.
Her daughter received internal stitches, and a skin adhesive was applied on top. She has a nasty scar that will remain for the rest of her life, and she will need plastic surgery in the future for scar revision.
Ashley’s husband left to pick up their daughter’s belongings from the after-school program. He saw more police there, taking statements from volunteers, staff members, and some children.
Everyone had a slightly different story, but they all heard the commotion and witnessed the aftermath. The police department has possession of the pool stick. Ashley and her husband had their daughter assessed by the medical examiner.
The medical examiner stated that the injury was caused by blunt force trauma to the head, although she could not determine exactly how it happened. It did not seem accidental.
The police initially wanted to rule her daughter’s case as an accidental incident, but one specific statement proved that there was malice and intent to harm.
Moments before the incident occurred, the boy had told the girls in the room that he wanted to pick up the pool stick and beat their heads with it.
The case will be taken to civil court, and Ashley’s family has been informed that they can get the district attorney involved. Ashley added that there were no working cameras at the program until after the incident took place, which she found to be very odd.
Her children no longer attend the after-school program.
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By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
