ATLANTA — A father says he's furious after his 14-year-old son suffered a broken elbow during a scuffle with a high school hall monitor.
Channel 2’s Aaron Diamant obtained the police and hospital reports from the incident.
The police report spells out two very different versions of what happened at Booker T. Washington High School in southwest Atlanta last Friday.
"The guy was on this side with his arm all the way like that, and he said he heard it when it popped, and said, ‘My arm, man. My arm,’" Rickey Ford said as he described a confrontation between his son, Raquon, and the hall monitor.
"Why would he do it? The monitor, why would he do that, hurt my little boy?” Rickey Ford asked.
Raquon Ford ended up with a broken elbow. Rickey Ford says his son admits using loud, foul language while walking down a school hallway last Friday.
An APD report shows Raquon Ford told officers the monitor “ran in his face, yelled at him then slammed him into a locker and pulled his arm back breaking it."
It continues to say the monitor, “who was sitting, stated as (Raquon) Ford began to close the distance he became more aggressive and began to threaten to physically fight him."
The monitor then told police “he stood up and (Raquon) Ford shoved him so he restrained him and in the process hurt (Raquon) Ford."
"I don't care what happened, or what went on, he didn't have no business breaking my little boy's arm, elbow. With the strength he have to do that, that was pain,” Rickey Ford said.
District policies ban physical restraint by its staff unless a student is in immediate danger to himself or others. District leaders wouldn't talk about the incident saying it was a personnel matter under review. The district referred us to police and police told us to talk to the district.
"He should have just called the police department, or called the principal and escorted him to the office,” Rickey Ford said.
Rickey Ford, who works as a security guard, says he's frustrated the school's surveillance cameras didn't catch the incident.
"I don't understand (why) the camera don't work. They told me that it skips, the camera do skip, which I don't understand. They don't, because I work with cameras every day,” he said.
The police report says officers reviewed video from four cameras that would have recorded the incident, but none showed enough for them to figure out how things went down.
"If somebody come in and shoot the whole school up, how would they find out who did what if the camera is skipping?” Rickey Ford asked.
Channel 2 Action News is not naming the hall monitor because he has not yet been charged with a crime or disciplined by the district.
WSBTV
