A mother in Georgia wants to know how her 8-year-old son ended up with a chipped tooth after being disciplined by a P.E. coach at Jackson Heights Elementary School.
Sadeirdra Canady says her son Deonte Harris was attending an In School Suspension Program when the incident took place last month. However, she believes school officials tried to brush it under the rug.
“Any other time that Deontae Harris gets in trouble in school they call and report it, you know, doing anything,” Canady told WALB Channel 10 News. “No one called; it was like they was trying to cover it up.”
The boy told his mother that the school’s assistant principal struck him, but Canady said that she has only authorized the school principal to administer corporal punishment to her child.
“He put me between his legs and spanked me, and after that he throwed me to the wall,” her son reported. “I kept telling the coach that my mom didn’t give y’all permission to whoop me except the principal.”
Assistant Superintendent of Schools Jack Willis told Channel 10 that his office is investigating the matter.
At this point, I received a call from her this morning telling me about this, and then later in the morning, I received a copy of the incident report; and right now our folks are investigating it. There has been no action taken at this point because we don’t know exactly what happened.
Canady said that she does not feel the investigation has been made a priority. “This is what, three, four weeks later now and the investigator just now coming to interview me?” she said.
Watch the video coverage below.