A 13-year-old student's attack on a pregnant Collins Elementary School teacher earlier this year caused the teacher to lose her baby, according to documents filed today in Richmond County Juvenile Court.
The incident initially wasn't reported to law enforcement, with the Richmond County School Safety Department stepping in only after Lt. Richard Roundtree got a call from a Chronicle reporter. School officials have thus far refused to comment on the baby's condition, saying only that the teacher was examined by a school nurse, instructed to see her physician and on leave for three school days following the incident.
The special needs student is charged with aggravated battery over the Jan. 20 incident, during which a teacher - trying to break up a fight - was struck repeatedly about the body and "intentionally" in the stomach, according to a complaint Roundtree submitted to juvenile authorities.
A petition filed today by the state Department of Juvenile Justice says the boy committed aggravated battery against the teacher by "rendering a member of her body, to wit: an unborn fetus, useless by punching said victim in the abdomen." Roundree's report says she was approximately 10 weeks pregnant at the time.
Reports obtained from the school system by The Chronicle say the attack happened as the 13-year-old brought his 12-year-old brother, also a special needs student, to the teacher's class to confront another student who "had been bothering him."
According to one report, the 13-year-old left his class to get his brother, and when they entered the pregnant teacher's room she asked them to leave, "but they refused." As the two brothers approached the student, the teacher stepped between them "and immediately began being struck in the stomach and arms by (the 13-year-old) offender."
A tribunal report says the older brother "hit a teacher in the eye, knocked over a podium onto a student, causing injury to the student, and hit a pregnant teacher on her arm and in her stomach."
After being struck, the teacher pushed the brothers out of the class and they were taken to the school office.
Initially, the school system's safety office wasn't notified by the school's principal, Thomas Norris, who said he reported the case to the school system's central office.
After hearing about the incident from a Chronicle reporter five days later, Roundtree initiated an investigation to determine if criminal charges were warranted. He said at the time that his office prefers to be called in immediately any time a teacher or student is injured.
Aggravated battery is a felony, according to the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice. Georgia law states that "a person commits the offense of aggravated battery when he or she maliciously causes bodily harm to another by depriving him or her of a member of his or her body, by rendering a member of his or her body useless, or by seriously disfiguring his or her body or a member thereof."
Staff Writer Preston Sparks contributed to this article.
Reach Johnny Edwards at (706) 823-3225
how does a kid know when someone is 10 weeks pregnant?
Who cares if he knew or not. Now it's murder. What a piece of absolute garbage. Why are we allowing animals like these to be in our schools? They need to be dealt with so that they are useful, at least as plow animals.
Who cares how they would know it was a CHILD hitting an ADULT duh@#@! He seemed to be on a mission and I doubt her being pregnant would have made any difference to the little thug.
Whether the kid knew the teacher was pregnant is immaterial. If I run over you while speeding away from the cops, but I don't KNOW that I run over you, does it matter? The kid attacked a teacher and there was serious damage done.
Failure to report this attack immediately should get the principal suspended.
We broke the news on this lost baby over 6 weeks ago...
Mary, I don't think that really matters as much as the fact that none of this would have happened if the brothers would have stayed in their own classrooms. Speaking of that, what happened to the other two teachers? The report says the 13 year old left his classroom and went to another to get his brother. Their teachers should have done something about them leaving class and roaming the halls. In short, a student doesn't need to worry about a teacher being 10 weeks pregnant if the student is behaving and not fighting.
It doesn't matter if he knew. If someone pulls a small tree across a road and causes a family in a car to lose their lives. I guess you think that this person should get charged with illegally chopping down a tree on a State right-of-way.
How about Assault and Battery of a High and Aggravating Nature, and as to the fetus Involuntary Manslaughter.
Charge the teacher! How stupid is that? So I guess we need to start charging mother's who are pregnant to not try to keep their other children out of harms way. As a teacher her job was to protect the student. Most often when an adult steps in the way the student will back off unfortuately in this case this boy was violent and bent on having his way. How would she KNOW that he would attack her any more than someone said how could he know she was pregnant? Most children would stop in the presence of an adult. I guess MAnd if it was your child that was targeted and got beat to a pulp because the teacher didn't do anything but stand aside or go yell for help you would be ok with that right? Yelling down the hall and waiting on help would have meant that this child would have gotten in several hits to the other child maybe even causing a severe injury then the teacher would be held accountable because she did nothing. It is a no win situation. This kind of crap is in every school and until people start waking up and demanding they be PUT OUT of school then they will continue to roam the hallways of YOUR child's school.
My heart goes out to this teacher. I understand the pain she must be going through. Shame on you Mand for blaming her. If your kid was injured because she didn't step in, you would be complaining about that too! She did what she felt was right and God Bless her for that!
mary dits, your question is irrelevant and idiotic. The point of the situation is that teachers, unfortunately, are put into these positions daily yet are charged with the care and safekeeping of other people's children. All too often, some of these children have a mind of their own and no parental upbringing, which leads to these type of situations and kids doing whatever the heck they feel like doing. I say, who cares if he is a kid? He CHOSE to fight and CHOSE to leave his classroom and confront someone else, so charge him as an ADULT in the crime that HE caused! It's a shame that the teacher had to bear the outcome of this brat's poor behavior.
Austin is right, they did report this on the air, immediately. Why wasn't this immediately reported to the police? Or, was it, and just not written on the report? "Special Needs?" Whoop their asses!
Austin is right, they did report this on the air, immediately. Why wasn't this immediately reported to the police? Or, was it, and just not written on the report? "Special Needs?" Whoop their asses!
If the family finds a good lawyer, there is no way a court will find this kid guilty. A thirteen-year old “special needs” student in an elementary school will be found not competent to stand trial.
Again, what is the "special need" of the two students? Are they learning disabled? Are they without adult supervision away from school? Are they physically disabled? The politically correct description is so vague as to be almost meaningless. If the problem is "special needs" because of a lack of self discipline, the solution is different than "special needs" because of mental handicap.
Put this "special" needs offender in a "special" cell for an eSPECIALly long time. Oh, and the brother needs to be charged as an accessory, at the least.
I didn't know special needs students were allowed to leave the classrooms unattended. I volunteer at a high school and they are closely supervised. Perhaps, they are allowed to leave but, an adult is 6ft. behind them to ensure they stay on task. This sounds like there was a problem with procedures not being followed! Administration, aides, other teachers, more investigating needed.
I can not believe people are saying it was the teachers fault. Get real people. I gotta agree with Austin on this one. It is irrevelant whether he knew the teacher was pregnant, it was assault and battery, period!
This is so sad. Yes, I think the young student who hit the teacher should be punished. At the same time the student who had been bullying him that he and his brother went to confront deserves some type of punishment as well. This is how incidents like Columbine happen because of bullies that turn the kids they bully into psychos.
Fiat Lux's comment was right on point. This kid was not special needs, he was a discipline problem. To many children get the label special needs because they have crappy parents that wont "parent". Sure there was a break down of the system and the kids should have never been allowed to leave class and go wondering, but how many of you have kids that go around punching adults? The parents of these brothers need punching. I applaud this teachers efforts to try to stop the fight, and I am deeply sorry for her and her family's loss, she should have beat this kid once he started swinging at her. The school system should have permission to spank disruptive and unruly children. My .02
Too many bad kids are lumped into the "Special Needs" category. They're not special, just stupid. This was premeditated, not something spontaneous and outside of the child's control.
I'm also wondering why it's just now being reported for the first time outside of Austin Rhodes' radio show.
"No woman who knows that she is pregnant should ever place herself or child in harms way."
One of the stupidest things I ever heard (in the context of this article).
I guess she was supposed to quit her job, quit driving (plenty of people are in car accidents), quit eating (E-coli in the spinach, etc.), quit bathing (hundreds of people slip and fall in the tub)...
Shame on you for blaming the victim in this case!
"Fiat Lux's comment was right on point." Good post, Fiat! I hope you spread your seed plenty, so more people with good common sense and intelligence, could be just like you!
Stop "mainstreaming" these kids. They require special teachers, constant supervision, and have no place disrupting "non special needs" kids lives.
My condolences to the lady who was just trying to do her job.
everybody! it's relevant because of this, which is right there in the article- Georgia law states that "a person commits the offense of aggravated battery when he or she maliciously causes bodily harm to another by depriving him or her of a member of his or her body, by rendering a member of his or her body useless, or by seriously disfiguring his or her body or a member thereof."
and this, also from the article- A petition filed today by the state Department of Juvenile Justice says the boy committed aggravated battery against the teacher by "rendering a member of her body, to wit: an unborn fetus, useless by punching said victim in the abdomen."
i'm saying if he didn't know about the fetus, could it have been intentional? not the hitting, which i'm not condoning, my jump-on-anything-that-can-be-simplified-into-a-screaming-match friends, but the rendering useless of a secret body part.
Comment removed because Fiat has it covered completely.
Ayetidiosi says; "My condolences to the lady who was just trying to do her job."
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Mine too, tidi, mine too!
sympathies to the teacher, of course. it's very ridiculous to give a woman a hard time about her miscarriage. she didn't do anything wrong, and stop acting like you cared about her pregnancy more than she did.
MAnd130630 what an ignorant comment, the teacher I am sure had no idea that the students would be punching her in her stomach....If she had not stepped in and the two brotheres had killed another student then I suppose you would be blaming her for that also. She did the right thing and the outcome was very unfortunate and the responsible parties should be punished. Teachers need to be protected and they need to have the right to protect themselves if the situation calls for it. Our world has changed and rules need to change to accomodate the times that we live in.
What we must remember is the life that was snuffed out before ever having a chance of being a non special needs child.
So put the offender in a special needs cell and get them out of the mainstream educational process. There is no upside.
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