Atlanta Public School police are investigating a teacher accused of slapping her 7-year-old non-verbal autistic student, Fox 5 reported.
An astounded Reginique Stinson discovered on Nov. 8, hours after the incident, that her son, Gabriel, was allegedly slapped by his Cleveland Avenue Elementary School teacher.
The concerned mother didn’t have many details about the incident but learned the slap was loud and forceful enough to alert another teacher, who reported it. Stinson wants answers to why an adult and educator felt compelled to act in such a manner.
“I don’t know what could’ve caused this lady to react in a way that she felt so threatened by my 3-foot-tall child,” Stinson said. “I just can’t imagine how my son could’ve felt in that moment. He’s never experienced something like that. I don’t hit my child. I feel like she definitely took advantage of the fact that he’s non-verbal in hitting him because she knew he can’t really speak up for himself.”
Since the incident, 7-year-old Gabriel hasn’t been the same, according to his mother.
“Outside of me dropping him off, my sister drops him off, and she was like, ‘He didn’t want to go into his classroom,'” she said.
The district’s Office of Employee Relations and APS police are investigating the matter, but Stinson wants action to ensure nothing like this happens again to another child. She suggested better training for teachers who work with special education children and cameras installed in all APS classrooms. Stinson withdrew her son from the class and is considering switching schools. The teacher’s employment status is unknown.
There’s a difference between what the teacher did and corporal punishment.
Georgia is a state that still allows corporal punishment in schools, but there are restrictions in place.
What Gabriel’s teacher allegedly did failed to align with the state’s corporal punishment laws. For example, the physical punishment cannot be excessive, and if the other teacher heard the alleged slap, there’s a chance it was absurd.
Additionally, a teacher can’t use physical punishment without warning the student first.
“Spanking or hitting cannot be the go-to method of punishment in the classroom,” FindLaw’s website read. “However, the use of force may be authorized as a first-line punishment if the student’s acts are ‘so antisocial or disruptive in nature as to shock the conscience.'”
If a teacher has to defend him or herself from a “violent student” or protect another student from a forceful student, corporal punishment must be administered.
A parent must provide a written statement professing their disapproval of corporal punishment on their child.
