COWETA COUNTY, Ga. — A Coweta County father wants his son’s former teacher charged with simple battery after surveillance video seemed to showed her dragging the man’s son out of an East Coweta Middle School classroom.
“Drug him backwards out the chair and into the hallway,” Justin Dewberry told Channel 2′s Audrey Washington. “I was sad.”
Dewberry said it all began when his son and his son’s friends began horseplaying inside the classroom.
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He said his son’s teacher snapped and dragged his son out of the classroom by the boy’s book bag.
He said his son was humiliated.
“He got slammed by a teacher and [he is] basically being bullied and taunted by the kids,” Dewberry said.
The alleged incident happened last November, but Dewberry said he had just recently obtained the school surveillance video.
He told Washington that he wanted the teacher held responsible but said school district officials let the teacher quietly resign, instead.
“She was able to resign on November 17, for personal medical reasons that had nothing to do with the incident,” Dewberry said.
In a statement to Channel 2 Action News, a spokesperson with Coweta County School System wrote:
“I can confirm that the teacher in this matter was placed on leave immediately following this incident, last November. The incident was referred immediately by the school system to law enforcement and to the state Professional Standards Commission. The teacher did not return to the classroom and resigned from the system.
Because this involves a personnel matter for our school system, and because it involves a legal matter - not with our school system, but for the parties involved - I can’t offer further comment.”
Dewberry filed a warrant application for the teacher’s arrest.
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In court on Wednesday, Dewberry asked the judge to sign the warrant.
“It could take a couple of weeks for a warrant to be issued, if there’s going to be a warrant issued,” Dewberry explained. “During the court hearing she didn’t make eye contact one time. (She) doesn’t seem remorseful about it.”
Thursday, Washington went to the former teacher’s home for comment about the situation, but the people inside the house did not answer the door.
“I want her held responsible like you would be or any other civilian would be if we went and snatched a kid to the ground,” Dewberry said.
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