Boy Paralyzed After Fight Over a Girl

Sept. 28, 2002 -- 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.

Dana's father said the boy constantly taunted her until she could no longer concentrate on her schoolwork. As a result, her father took her out of the school, where she was a straight-A student and participated in the choir and drama club.

"She had everything in the world going for her," said Scott Signorelli, Kyle and Dana's father on Good Morning America.

"And because the School District 204's inability to make a decision here, my daughter and my whole family has been compromised."

Signorelli said Dana has been hospitalized five times for post-traumatic stress syndrome.

"The poor kid can't even function," he said.

Father Protests School's Response

Signorelli protested the school's decision earlier this month by trying to persuade the school principal and the school board to place his son's alleged attacker in an alternative setting.

"I don't think I was being unreasonable about that," he said.

In a statement, the school said: "This incident occurred outside the school during a break. The Signorelli boy was no longer a student of ours, and although technically the youth, the other boy, has been charged with three counts of assault, he has not been found guilty yet. The youth has a right to an education and the incident did not involve anything related to the school."

Boy Not a Threat to Others?

Gene Ognibene, the alleged assailant's attorney, said what happened to Kyle was "absolutely awful and everybody's heart goes out for that family."

The judge, Ognibene said, could have decided to detain his client when the incident occurred, but he would have had to find evidence that the boy was a threat to other people, or that there was an urgent and immediate necessity to detain him. However, the judge found that the 16-year-old was not a threat and released him.

"He's back in the school now, apparently Neuqua used their judgment and they believe that my client's not a danger to anybody," said Ognibene. "And the prosecutor certainly has the ability to file additional charges or petitions if my client was, in fact, engaging in the conduct [taunting Dana Signorelli] that Mr. Signorelli is talking about."

Signorelli is outraged by the school's response to his protest.

"It did not happen on school grounds. But because of what has happened in regards to my daughter, you know, we're the ones that have been compromised here. We're the ones that have been victimized here, OK?" Signorelli said.