Rockford

Family of Teen Seen Being Bodyslammed on Video by a Rockford School Officer Files Suit

The teen's mom has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on his behalf

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For 15-year-old Paris Moore, life is now different.

"He stays in his room. He has confined himself to his bedroom. He doesn't really come out except when he uses the bathroom or to shower when he is told to shower," Moore's grandmother Diane Morgan said.

Morgan says her grandson suffered a traumatic brain injury when a Rockford police school resource officer body slammed him to the floor more than a year ago, when he was a freshman at Auburn High School. The incident was captured on school security cameras.

"He slams him head first. The brunt of the impact is to the left side of his head, and that blow produced a four to six inch vertical fracture from the left side to the top of Paris' skull," attorney Al Hofeld Jr. said.

Stephanie Moore, Paris' mother, is now filing a federal civil rights lawsuit on her son's behalf.

"When he got home, he was a different human being. He was unable to walk, his hands were folded inward. He appeared pigeon-toed," Hofeld Jr. said.

Rockford Public Schools says the district is “unable to comment on confidential student matters or any pending or ongoing legal matters.”

The Rockford Police Department refers all calls to the city’s legal department, which has yet to respond to a request for comment from NBC 5.

In the wake of the incident, Paris' mother and grandmother now say they worry about his future.

"My concern is that he is going to be OK, that he is going to be able to learn to communicate again and be around people, or he is going to be isolated and do something to himself," Morgan said.

The officer who bodyslammed Moore no longer works in the school, but Moore's family wants the officer to face criminal charges.

"He could have killed my grandson. I definitely want him charged," Morgan said.

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