Boy Paralyzed After Fight Over a Girl
Sept. 28 -- Painfully grappling with the possibility that their 19-year-old son may never walk again, Kyle Signorelli's parents have confronted another heartbreak after the boy responsible for putting their son in a wheelchair was allowed to return to high school.
Just last year, Kyle was a freshman studying computer technology at a college near his home in Naperville, Ill. But on Dec. 22, Kyle's life took a devastating turn when a 16-year-old boy, jealous that Kyle was dating his previous girlfriend, came to his house and started a fight.
When he thought the fight was over, Kyle says he turned around to walk away, and the boy came from behind him and flipped him upside down onto his head in his front yard, shattering one of his vertebrae into eight pieces.
"I laid there on the ground on my belly, and my sister had come, and I was, like, Dana, flip me over," said Kyle in an interview on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America. "And she flipped me over and my head stayed in the same spot that it was when I was laying on my belly. And I told her that I couldn't feel my arms or my legs. And then I lost consciousness."
Five operations later and after months of rehabilitation, Kyle said he has only regained feeling in his triceps.
Boy Back in School, Causes More Pain
The 16-year-old boy has been charged with three counts of aggravated battery, and he is scheduled to go on trial Oct. 15. His attorney said he pleaded not guilty to the charges.
When the incident occurred initially, the alleged assailant was taken to a juvenile detention center, and released that same week. He was then placed on a home electronic-monitoring program, which he remains on today.
In addition, Indian Prairie School District 204 administrators placed the boy in an alternative high school last year. However, this year school officials have allowed him to return to Neuqua Valley High School, causing even more pain for Kyle's family.
Kyle and his 16-year-old sister Dana attended Neuqua Valley High school last year. Dana faced a constant reminder of the tragic incident that left her brother paralyzed when the school officials allowed her brother's attacker to return.
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