An Autistic Texas girl who was brutally beaten by a group of middle school students is reportedly back in the hospital after losing “feeling and function” in her right leg, journalist Sarah Fields shared on X. Doctors have also found a mass on her brain.
Maddison McDonald, 14, was attacked at her school earlier this year. She was kicked in the head, neck, sides and back, and punched and dragged by her hair as she screamed for help, her mother previously said, according to the Daily Mail.
Who is Maddison McDonald?
Maddison, who was diagnosed with ADHD and Autism, was a student at Sul Ross Middle School in San Antonio. The outlet reported that she spent the last school year reporting bullying to her school, but her pleas went unnoticed.
“Now, Maddison is back in the hospital - and her recovery has taken a devastating turn,” Sarah wrote on X. “Her mother reached out to me directly with the update and sent me photographs of Maddison, along with images of her scans. According to her mother, Maddison was simply trying to make her bed when she ended up on the floor, screaming in pain and unable to even get herself onto her knees.”
She added, “Doctors performed scans and MRIs and discovered both a slipped disc and a bulging disc at L4 and L5, which her mother says are causing Maddison’s severe pain and loss of function in her legs. Maddison has regained most of the feeling and function on her left side, but her right leg has still not recovered. She currently cannot safely get around without the assistance of a wheelchair or walker.”
{{/usCountry}}She added, “Doctors performed scans and MRIs and discovered both a slipped disc and a bulging disc at L4 and L5, which her mother says are causing Maddison’s severe pain and loss of function in her legs. Maddison has regained most of the feeling and function on her left side, but her right leg has still not recovered. She currently cannot safely get around without the assistance of a wheelchair or walker.”
{{/usCountry}}Sarah added that doctors also found a mass on Maddison’s brain that is “approximately the size of a gumball” and is located “on the right side of her temporal lobe.”
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Maddison's mother, Hazel McDonald, previously accused the school of ignoring her daughter even after she repeatedly reported the bullying.
“Every time she has her statement ripped up, she's told she's making it up and to go back to class,” Hazel wrote on a GoFundMe.
“Sadly, on [February 26, 2026], the five girls that had been bullying and threatening Maddi made good on their threats,” she added.
Hazel said that before the attack, she herself went to the school several times, sent multiple emails and contacted the superintendent. The school said after the attack that the issue was swiftly “addressed” but refused to release the surveillance footage of the incident, News 4 San Antonio reported.
“Faculty stood by and did nothing. The same admin that ripped up her reports of being bullied stood over her right after the attack, making her sit in a chair bleeding, terrified and begging for help,” wrote Hazel.
“The humiliation that she had to endure should have never happened... All I've heard from the school is that no bullying ever happened there, that we never reported it,” she further wrote.
What happened to Maddison McDonald after the attack?
After the attack, Maddison was left hospitalized.
“'[The school] made her write a false statement saying everything that happened to her, was her fault, while refusing to allow her to get any kind of medical care,” her mother wrote, adding that the school did not call 911 for medical help and would not let her contact her parents for around an hour.
Hazel said she showed up after Maddison “found a way to call and get help.”
“She was forced to sit in a chair while her hair was falling out in clumps; she was bleeding from wounds and begging for her mom. She was denied everything until she was told that her attack was her own fault,” said Hazel.
“The school resource officer never even asked her what happened. He was given the statement she was forced to write and told not to get anything from her... Aside from numerous texts trying to cover things up, no one at Sul Ross has done anything to help make this right for our family,” she added.
Hazel also said that the school refused to hold the bullies accountable and that she was forced to “beg and plead” with the police chief for a warrant for the “main two suspects.”
“The principal went as far as sending out a false statement to the entire student body parents that very hour we showed up, lying to the parents saying that the school was in a lockdown for a non-student-related issue, but in fact, it was because of the severity of the attack on my daughter that they had gone into lockdown,” Hazel claimed.
In a statement to News 4 San Antonio, the school said in part, “School administration took swift disciplinary action in accordance with district policy. Likewise, Northside ISD police followed state law in the filing of appropriate charges.”
It added, “We want to emphasize that the matter was addressed despite allegations against the contrary. This type of behavior will not be tolerated within our schools.”
Two students involved in the attack later faced assault charges. A police report indicated that the fight may have started over a dispute involving a boy. Doctors who examined Maddison after the attack diagnosed her with a concussion.