Anwar Patterson is the nephew of Gateway volunteer Muneerah Jones

7-31-08 UPDATE: Anwar’s temp. was 108* today - please pray!!

Update! Anwar is still in a coma but he is doing much better, they took the tube out of his head, so we will continue to pray.


Irvington teen held in assault in school

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15-year-old found injured in restroom

Thursday, July 17, 2008

BY REGINALD ROBERTS / Star-Ledger Staff


A 17-year-old juvenile has been arrested for the assault of a 15-year-old boy inside Irvington High School during summer ses sion, police said.

Police officers assigned to the school's resource team responded Tuesday about 8:30 a.m. after being called by high school administrators, police said. They found the student lying unresponsive on a restroom floor and immediately no tified Emergency Medical Services, police said.

The victim, whom family members identified as Anwar Patterson, was taken to University Hospital in Newark. He was listed in stable condition yesterday, according to Tiffany Smith, a spokeswoman for the hospital.

After an investigation by officers, the juvenile suspect of Irvington, who was not identified be cause of his age, was arrested and transported to the Essex County Youth House, police said.

He was scheduled to appear in juvenile court yesterday.

Norma Hilliard of Irvington, the grandmother of the victim, said the family learned of the incident through a cell phone call from a student inside the school. "Come to the school. Your brother's been hurt," was the urgent message of the caller, she said.

Had that call not been made, Pamela Patterson, the victim's mother, said she would not have known her son was hurt.

"No one called," she said of school officials. "Why didn't anybody call me?"

Patterson said when she got to the school, her son was lying on the restroom floor in the basement of the school having seizures. "I started screaming and crying," she said.

The suspect was involved Monday in a fight with two other people a few blocks from the school, Patterson said, adding that one of the people was a friend of her son's.

Patterson said she has heard conflicting stories of what led to the fight that involved her son.

"I want to know what happened," she said. Police did not say what led to the fight.

Patterson said principal Neely Hackett told her she would not be allowed to see the principal's report on the incident.

Hackett was on vacation at the time of the incident, but came to the school to investigate, school superintendent Ethel Davion said.

"I am saddened that we have a student in this condition," she said, but added that she would decline further comment until she has read Hackett's report.