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10-Year-Old Girl Battered by Security at Beacon Therapeutic, Aunt Says

By Howard Ludwig | September 23, 2016 8:20am
 Kayla, a 10-year-old student at Beacon Therapeutic, was roughed up by a school security guard, according to her aunt and guardian. An NBC-5 report detailed the incident.
Kayla, a 10-year-old student at Beacon Therapeutic, was roughed up by a school security guard, according to her aunt and guardian. An NBC-5 report detailed the incident.
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NBC-5

BEVERLY — The family of a 10-year-old girl is charging that the child was battered by a security guard at Beacon Therapeutic Diagnostic and Treatment Center.

The girl named Kayla was restrained by the security guard and left with bumps, cuts and bruises on her back and face, according to an NBC5 Chicago report.

“He threw her up against the blackboard and threw her against the carpet,” Treshawnda Junius, who said she was Kayla's aunt and legal guardian, told the station.

“If I would have sent her to school looking like this, I’d be in jail right now,” she said.

Susan Reyna-Guerrero, president and chief executive of Beacon, would not comment on the allegations Thursday, citing confidentiality protections for the student.

Junius said she witnessed the girl — who has been diagnosed as bipolar and having attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or ADHD — being forcibly restrained.

“We heard Kayla screaming, we heard her tussling with the man, we heard him telling her to stop or it’ll get worse,” Junius said.

Junius told NBC-5 the school said Kayla had hurt herself. She is refusing to send the girl back to Beacon and is waiting for her to be assigned to a new school.

Beacon's administrative offices are at 1912 W. 103rd St. in Beverly. The nonprofit organization serves homeless children as well as other at-risk adolescents and teens, according to its website. It operates a schools at 10650 S. Longwood Dr. in Beverly and at 12440 S. Ada St. in south suburban Calumet Park.

NBC-5 said the Department of Children and Family Services confirmed an investigation into the incident. Junius also said she filed and a police report. A spokesman with the Chicago Police Department was unable to find a police report citing either Beverly location for the date of Sept. 19.

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