Mom gets one year for assaulting daughter's teacher

By Larry Hartstein

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A 46-year-old woman pleaded guilty Monday to assaulting her daughter's teacher and was sentenced to one year in prison followed by four years' probation, WSB-TV reported.

Georgia Thornton and her daughter Sequita, now 19, were charged in the brutal February 2008 attack on Southside High School teacher Felecia Williams. Sequita Thornton has asked for a jury trial, according to WSB-TV.

Sequita Thornton was in Williams' communications class at Southside, now called Maynard Jackson High.  Williams said she previously had met with Georgia Thornton to discuss Sequita's grades and sporadic attendance at the Atlanta public school. On the day of the attack, Williams said the mother and daughter walked into her classroom and began arguing with her, claiming she had given Sequita an outdated book.

Georgia Thornton grabbed a book off the teacher's desk, and Williams tried to get it back, Williams said. Then the attack began.

"I was kicked, scratched, hit, punched, and some of my hair was pulled out of my scalp," Williams said in court Monday, according to WSB-TV.

Thornton pleaded guilty and apologized in court, WSB-TV reported.