Teacher suspended after restraining armed student at Georgia high school, lawyer says
A Georgia teacher has been suspended after an altercation with a student who brought a gun to school in August 2021.
The disciplinary action stems from when former Coach Kenneth Miller said he received a video showing guns on Tri-Cities High School grounds, in East Point, according to WSB.
On their way to an outdoor pep rally that day, the school officials got notice that students were “planning on doing something,” Miller told Fox News.
He said the school’s principal asked him to investigate reports that students had brought guns to campus, the outlet reported.
The teacher’s attorney, Allen Lightcap, said that Miller was asking the student where the guns were when she attacked him. Shortly after the altercation, he said Miller found the gun she brought.
Video from an officer’s body cam shows that when he went to the student to confront her, the student was agitated and smacked Miller’s hand. He proceeded to push the student against the wall and restrained her until police intervened.
“Coach Miller is the reason all of metro Atlanta does not know the date of August 20, 2021,” Lightcap told McClatchy News in a statement. “That’s because he averted another tragic school shooting that day, and no one was hurt. Everyone went home safe. Coach Miller is the reason these guns were found.”
After the incident, Fulton County School District originally filed a termination charge against Miller, Lightcap said.
The Fulton County school district told McClatchy News in a statement that Miller “failed to meet the professional expectations it has for employees.”
“Mr. Miller acted outside of the scope of his authority and responsibilities,” the statement read. “Mr. Miller’s conduct resulted in an escalation of a physical altercation with a student in crisis, which conflicts with district expectations to deescalate in these types of situations.”
The teacher’s attorney said his client had “the right to self defense” in this incident.
“This is especially true when guns are involved,” Lightcap said in the statement. “Teachers should not be terminated or suspended when it’s clear they were defending themselves.”
District officials scheduled a termination hearing in the case. But Lightcap said the hearing was then “abruptly canceled by the District without Coach Miller’s consent.”
“Now that the district has changed its charge to a suspension mid-trial, Coach Miller no longer gets to call witnesses so that the truth can come out,” Lightcap said.
In a letter from Ethel Lett, the high school’s principal, shared on the school’s website, Lett said that “bringing a gun or weapon onto a school campus” is a “very serious offense,” in “clear violation of our Fulton County Schools’ Student Code of Conduct.”
In the letter, the principal announced that the school is exploring steps such as unannounced K-9 dog sweeps and random weapons checks.
Miller received the notice of suspension on March 4. On March 9, Lightcap appealed the 20-day suspension, according to legal documents.
In the appeal, Lightcap reiterated that Miller “did nothing wrong” and that he “defended himself against a student who attacked him.”
“[Officer] Cleveland and [AP] Lawson corroborated Miller’s account that [the student] was the aggressor, was highly agitated, and smacked the phone out of Miller’s hand,” the Personal Investigation Report made on Sept. 13, 2021 said, according to Lightcap.
Lightcap wrote in the appeal that the investigation report said all three eye witnesses said they did not witness any misconduct by Miller. But, the attorney added that Fulton Board policies “specifically exclude witness testimony” when it comes to suspensions versus full terminations.
“Coach Miller asks that the Fulton County drop the suspension and put him back to work at Tri-Cities,” Lightcap said, “It is never too late to do the right thing.”
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