Arkansas mom raising awareness after son burned at football practice

JONESBORO, Arkansas -- An Arkansas mother says she wants other parents to know what happened to her son during football practice so that it doesn't happen to anyone else.

A Nettleton Junior High School football player, whose parent wanted him to remain anonymous, suffered burns Wednesday after doing drills on a hot outdoor track.

His mother said that her son's coach made players do bear crawls and crab walks on the hot surface.

He came home with severe burns on his hands. That day the temperature reached a high of 93 degrees.

"He came home with open wounds and I was like 'Where did these come from?' He was not going to even say anything," said the mother, who also asked to remain anonymous.

In an interview with KAIT, she said that her son told her some kids got in trouble, so the entire team had to do bear crawls and crab walks.

"He didn't realize his hands were that hurt until he did the forward crawl and they started to sting. He said when he held his hand up, he saw the skin from the blister was hanging," she said.

She posted her concerns on Facebook, which triggered a response from the school.

"I cannot blame anyone for their reaction to that," Nettleton School District Superintendent James Dunivan said. "Especially a parent who sends their child to school and they come home injured. I cannot blame any concerned parent who saw that for reacting anyway other than what they did. When I first saw it, it was just something that you do not want to occur."

The athletic director immediately reached out to the mother about her son's injuries and they all took responsibility for it.

She said the school district has been amazing at being 100 percent supportive.

"Nobody once blamed him for his injuries," she said. "They never once said he did the exercises wrong or that it was his fault. It was always a 'I am so sorry.'"