Preschool teacher accused of pushing students suspended for 15 days, TN school says
A preschool teacher was captured on video pushing students in the cafeteria — now she’s suspended without pay for 15 days, the Tennessee district said.
The teacher at Stewartsboro Elementary School came under fire after a camera caught her “initiating forceable physical contact with two students,” Rutherford County Director of Schools James Sullivan wrote in a disciplinary letter obtained by WZTV.
Sullivan referenced moment-by-moment time stamps from the eight-minute video recorded on Jan. 30.
In the letter, he said the preschool teacher pushed the students’ heads with her hand and elbow, pulled their arms, jerked and kicked their chairs, grabbed them and spoke to them aggressively.
In a charge listed separately from the physical incidents, Sullivan said one student left the cafeteria and she brought him back, then removed his lunch tray for five minutes.
The teacher is also accused of using her laptop for personal reasons instead of watching students during lunch.
The school board voted to suspend her at a meeting on Wednesday, March 20.
A spokesperson for Rutherford County Schools told McClatchy News the teacher has been with the district for 26 years and had no history of disciplinary issues.
“In addition to the suspension, the district is reporting the suspension to the Tennessee Department of Education teacher licensure office, the teacher must meet with the director, and she will be transferred to the Rutherford County Virtual School,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
The woman doesn’t face criminal charges. In many instances, corporal punishment is legal in Tennessee schools.
“Any teacher or school principal may use corporal punishment in a reasonable manner against any pupil for good cause in order to maintain discipline and order within the public schools,” according to Tennessee law.
McClatchy News reached out to the teacher for comment on March 22 but did not immediately receive a response.
“If I was in there, it would be termination,” parent Amber Hodges told WSMV in response to the school board meeting. “It would be termination. That is a child, an innocent child.”
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