UPDATE: TIFTON, Ga. (AP) – Police have arrested a Georgia teacher after surveillance video appears to show her knocking a special needs student to the floor in a school hallway.
Local media sources report that 71-year-old Amelia Stripling turned herself in to police Friday afternoon. The incident occurred at the Tift County Pre-K Center in Tifton on March 17.
The child’s mother, Sarah Patterson, tells the station that the teacher thrust her knee into the little boy’s back, causing him to fall forward near a classroom door.
Tift County school officials say the boy was not hurt. Schools spokeswoman Stacey Beckham said Stripling, a teacher for 22 years, resigned the next day. She says an eyewitness said it appeared she intentionally pushed the child.
Tifton is about 200 miles south of Atlanta.
ORIGINAL STORY: TIFTON, GA (AP) — A south Georgia teacher is packing up her desk after surveillance video appears to show her knocking a special needs student to the ground in a school hallway.
CBS46 reports the special education teacher, Amelia Stripling, has resigned after the incident at Tift County Pre-K Center in Tifton on March 17.
The child’s mother, Sarah Patterson, says the teacher thrust her knee into the little boy’s back. Video shows the boy falling forward on the ground near a classroom door.
Tift County School officials say the young boy was not hurt and Stripling was reported to the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services.
A spokeswoman for the school system did not immediately return a phone call from The Associated Press on Friday.
Patterson says she has hired a lawyer. There is no word yet if Stipling hired a lawyer in response. Stripling’s teacher page has been removed from the school’s website.