RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – A Wake County mother says the boy who beat her son in gym class has apologized, but her desire to bring change to how to the district deals with violence in school isn’t over.

Ashley Williams-Marble said her 16-year-old son Wood is recovering after undergoing surgery Tuesday. She said Wood’s nose was broken in five places after he was beaten up at Wakefield High School last week.

While the surgery went well, Williams-Marble said it’s still unclear when he’ll return to school.

“He’s having some big side effects from the concussion,” she said.

Williams-Marble said Monday evening that the school’s principal forwarded her a message from the boy behind the assault. She shared the message with CBS 17:

I am apologizing to you for my actions on Thursday of last week. My actions were not acceptable and I should have made better choices. I hope you can forgive me for my bad choices. I understand you are not happy at this moment and I do feel great guilt for what I did. I did not realize my own strength and as a result, I hurt someone who did not deserve it. As I said before I hope you can accept my apology. I will do the best I can to fix this situation.

“It takes a big person to step up and admit their mistake, and take responsibility for it. So that is one big step in the healing process. It doesn’t make it right. It doesn’t take away all the hardship and the pain that my son, and my family has had to suffer, but I forgive him,” Williams-Marble said.

She wrote her own letter back to the student thanking him for his apology. She also asked him to treat others with respect.

It takes a brave person to admit a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes, we learn from them, & we grow from them. Hopefully we can help put a stop to all the unnecessary violence in our schools today. 

While this has created an enormous amount of heartbreak, physical suffering, and hardship on our family we have forgiven you, and prayed for you too.  You wouldn’t be human if you weren’t hurting now too. We all are family in Christ, let’s all treat each other that way in every one of our actions. 

Spread love, not hate, give hugs, not hits, and most of all,  give respect to everyone. I sincerely thank you for your apology. Remember, a bad choice doesn’t make you a bad person.

Williams-Marble said both she and her son are still worried about safety inside the school. Other students told CBS 17 last week’s incident wasn’t the first fight at Wakefield High School.

According to data from Raleigh Police from Oct. 1, 2017 to Oct. 18, 2018 there were 536 calls to service to Wakefield High School. Most of those calls were for security checks, but 28 were for fights or assault.

Williams-Marble said any instance of physical violence at the school is too many.

She plans on attending next month’s school board meeting to address the issue. 

“If anything good can come of this horrible incident, it is that we can create some awareness,” she said.

When asked about the case, a Wake County Public School’s spokesperson couldn’t comment on individual students.

Raleigh police said a juvenile petition for assault was secured for a 15-year-old involved in the incident at the school.