Ocean Bay Elementary special education teacher pleads guilty to child abuse charges
An Horry County special education teacher pleaded guilty to charges involving child neglect in court Thursday afternoon.
Grace McColgan, 61, will spend 30 concurrent days in jail.
The crimes she was accused of included rubbing hand sanitizer on a child’s open wound and striking three male students on two separate occasions during the 2021-22 school year.
She was placed on administrative leave on Oct. 11, according to district officials.
Prosecutor Jerrod Fussnecker said that three assistant teachers witnessed McColgan’s actions against her students.
A mother of one of the victims spoke Thursday on behalf of her family, as well as other victims. Tearfully, she thanked the Horry County Police Department, and the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office for handling the case, as well as McColgan for “being an example” of what not to be.
She said that her child suffered trauma and struggled going to school.
“Having to pry them from the car is routine,” she said.
Before sentencing, several of McColgan’s associates spoke on her behalf.
One witness, Sandra Taylor, who had known McColgan for about 40 years, said McColgan was successful and had an enthusiasm for teaching.
Other witnesses, including another teacher at Ocean Bay Elementary School, said she was trustworthy around children and worked hard as a teacher.
Taylor said that she was confident “Mrs. McColgan is one of the finest teachers I have ever known.”
The Little River resident had been teaching since 1984, including time as a special education teacher in New York, according to her lawyer Kevin Hughes. She has no previous criminal history.
As a result of her sentencing, McColgan will not be allowed to work in a school. She will also be put on a statewide child abuse registry.
The presiding judge told McColgan that she had put him in a position he had “not been on since being on the bench.”
McColgan joined Horry County Schools in August 2020.
At the same time of her arrest in early November last year, McColgan’s boss, Principal Rebecca Schroyer, was arrested and charged with two counts of failing to report the child neglect.
She was placed on administrative leave last year and is still awaiting her next court appearance while on home detention.
Schroyer will not return to Ocean Bay Elementary this school year, according to district officials. Interim principal Megan Acre will lead Ocean Bay Elementary School for the following academic year, the district said.
