04 - Hometown Hard News - Isaiah Calvert

 

    Parents seek answers after teacher allegedly touches student inappropriately at school - September 23rd -               A 10-year-old girl—just a fifth grader—coming home from school with a story no parent ever wants to hear. She says she was touched inappropriately by a teacher. Her parents now speaking out—telling us about the incident, the video evidence, and the silence they say they’ve faced from school officials. 

“I wouldn’t have sent her to that school if I would’ve known that they weren’t going to protect her they way that they said they were going to,” says Ashleigh the child’s mother. 

It began in the family kitchen one evening after school. A little girl, just 10 years old, quietly approaching her father, Rocky—confiding in him about something that left her shaken. 

He says his daughter had the courage to speak up. “She asked me to talk about something. And I said, Yeah, of course, what do you need to talk about? And she said, Dad, I felt pretty uncomfortable at school today. A teacher kind of touched me, and it made me feel pretty uncomfortable. I asked, clearly. I asked, What exactly happened? Because, as any parent, that's, you know, extremely unnerving to hear.” 

Rocky says his daughter attended Beebe elementary school - this incident happened when his daughter was walking back to class from the restroom. “She told me that she was walking past this teacher's classroom. You know, mind you, that this is not her teacher. She's never interacted with this teacher before. She was walking by his classroom. She's a little late because she had used the restroom, and so there's not very many students in the hallway. As she passed his door, he ended up reaching out of his door and grabbing her by the hips, and sorry, he pulled her in close from the hips and knelt down, picked her up from around the waist, and picked her all the way up into, you know, back to chest and so then you can see him in the video leaning down, whispering in her ear as he walks into his classroom.”And what the child says the teacher allegedly whispered: “When I asked my daughter what was said, she told me that when he picked her up, she said he told her that, hey, you’re a small one. Can I keep you? And you know, that's basically all that I know was said. But it made her feel extremely uncomfortable. And you know, it's just downright unnecessary and unprofessional. In my opinion.” 

Rocky says they have pushed harder for answers —demanding to see the surveillance video—he was told by the principal nothing was there. “The principal, Miss Corson, of Beebe public schools, fifth grade building, she actually told me that there was nothing caught on camera whatsoever, that ‘I don't know why you wanted the video, because from the angle we saw, there's nothing on the camera at all.’ And I didn't believe that for one second.” Later, he says, the superintendent Mr. Prothrow admitted he had watched it himself. “I asked him about the video, and he said that he actually saw the video with his own two eyes. And he described to me exactly what happened in the video, and said there was actually a teacher witness as well. So I got completely lied to by the principal, and I think that was extremely inappropriate and unprofessional. ” (KATV).