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Paducah Boy Home After Bullying Incident

A 12 year old Paducah boy is recovering at home after spending several days at Vanderbilt Hospital following an alleged attack by another boy last Sunday.

Paducah police have charged a 13 year old has with fourth-degree assault in connection with the incident. Ian Poole told police he and was playing with two friends on the Morgan Elementary School playground when a youth approached him and punched him.

Poole’s uncle Al Knudsen says his nephew had been bullied before and the boy's mother complained many times to school officials about bullying.

“Nobody put a stop when he said, ‘I’m in trouble. They’re threatening me.’ Nobody took him seriously and tried to stop it,” Knudsen says. “They just brushed it under the rug, like it didn’t happen.”

Paducah Public Schools could not be reached for comment, but superintendent Randy Greene says the school administration takes all bullying allegations seriously and investigates them fully.

Paducah mayor Gayle Kalor posted on Knudsen’s Facebook that she is announcing an anti-bullying task force June 11 and is “horrified” by what happened to Poole.

Whitney grew up listening to Car Talk to and from her family’s beach vacation each year, but it wasn’t until a friend introduced her to This American Life that radio really grabbed her attention. She is a recent graduate from Union University in Jackson, Tenn., where she studied journalism. When she’s not at WKMS, you can find her working on her backyard compost pile and garden, getting lost on her bicycle or crocheting one massive blanket.
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