Cherokee teacher pleads guilty to duct-taping autistic student

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By Jeffry Scott

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Cherokee County teacher who duct-taped an autistic boy to a chair and confined a blind girl under a desk pleaded guilty to false imprisonment and was sentenced to six years of probation and $2,000 in fines.

Cherokee County Sheriff's Office Laurie Peavy, a former Woodstock High teacher, pleaded guilty to duct-taping an autistic boy to a chair and confining a blind girl under a desk.

Paraprofessional Nancy Cheek was charged with one count of false imprisonment and one count of first-degree cruelty to children. She testified against Laurie Peavy.

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The Woodstock High School teacher, Laurie Peavy, 45, and a paraprofessional at the school, Nancy Cheek, 51, were arrested in May 2009 after a Sheriff’s Office investigation discovered the abuses that took place in 2008.

Peavy was charged with two counts of false imprisonment and two counts of first-degree cruelty to children. Cheek was charged with one count of false imprisonment and one count of first-degree cruelty to children. Cheek struck a deal with prosecutors and testified against Peavy.

In her sentencing Monday before Superior Court Judge Frank C. Mills III, Peavy agreed to surrender her teaching certificate and not apply for another certificate anywhere else. She also agreed not to do volunteer work or seek employment where she would work with, teach or tutor children, according to the Cherokee County clerk’s office.

District Attorney Garry Moss could not be reached for comment Thursday morning, nor could Peavy’s attorney, J. Daran Burns. Neither Peavy nor Cheek could be reached for comment. Peavy has been on leave without pay from the Cherokee County school system since her arrest. Cheek resigned from the school system in August 2009.