Gwendolyn Quarles, 11, was diagnosed with a brain injury that may leave her blind soon after one of her peers allegedly hit her in the face with a football on purpose, according to her parents.
"On the day of the injury, Gwendolyn was in gym class and the coaches left the children alone," Patrick Quarles, Gwendolyn's 43-year-old father, told ABC News. "There seems to have been an argument and then she remembers a ball flying at her."
After the incident, Gwendolyn complained of a "floating feeling" and was sent to the school nurse. Her parents came to pick her up and brought her to the hospital later that day where she was diagnosed with intracranial hypertension - a rare disorder where pressure inside the skull chokes off the optic nerve from the brain.
Mr. Quarles told ABC News he reported several incidents of his daughter being bullied to the school prior to the recent unsupervised one in gym class.
Gwendolyn's doctors couldn't definitively tell the family that the brain condition was a result of the ball hitting her head, although the Intracranial Hypertension Foundation lists head trauma as a cause of the condition.
Gwendolyn's school, The Founder's Classic Academy, which is part of the Responsive Education Solutions, a charter school system in Texas, is not taking responsibility for the incident and neither confirmed nor denied that anything happened on their premises in a statement.
"We are not allowed to speak about confidential student information but the school's policy is to investigate and notify parents promptly of any accident or bullying," said Mary Ann Duncan, vice president of school operations for RES.
Though Gwendolyn's parents aren't planning to sue the school, they fear the expensive surgery needed to treat her may leave her blind, reported ABC News. She is also experiencing other symptoms that make pose challenges in everyday life.
"She sometimes has trouble understanding me and sometimes she will trip over things. It comes and goes," Mr. Quarles told ABC News.
The number of victims of bullying, like Gwendolyn, are still on the rise.
