Clayton school board member charged with battery

A Clayton County school board member was arrested last week on charges of simple battery after a dispute with her live-in boyfriend.

Trinia Garrett, 36, the District 7 representative, was arrested on April 21 on charges of violating the state’s family violence act.

Trinia Garrett.

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According to Clayton Magistrate Court records, Garrett made “physical contact of an insulting and provoking nature” against Albert Stocken, 58, with whom she has lived for the past 18 months in Lake City.

Garrett allegedly started the altercation by arguing over a credit card charge of $85 at a local hotel. She grabbed a chain and pulled it from Stocken’s neck, according to court records.

Garrett was arrested on simple battery charge and booked into the Clayton County Jail. She has since been released on $2,000 bond. The judge ordered her to have no violent contact with Stocken.

Reached today, Garrett said, “That’s a personal matter” and hung up on a reporter.

School board Chairman Alieka Anderson, contacted Thursday, said she was unaware of the arrest but that Garrett remains a board member.

“The board will have to discuss it and make a decision on what to do,” Anderson said. School employees who are arrested are usually placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the case.

The board was scheduled to meet Thursday for a budget hearing. Garrett attended the last board on Monday, several days after bonding out of jail.

News of the arrest comes at a critical time for Clayton schools. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) is scheduled to make an announcement Friday at 1:30 p.m. on whether it will restore the system’s accreditation, which was revoked in August 2008.

Garrett was elected in July 2008 to fill a vacant school board seat.