The father of an 18-year-old Roswell High School student says a teacher hit his son before school let out for summer.
Ignacio Barquera told Channel 2 Action News his autistic son, Stefano, was struck by a teacher as she tried to stop him from picking his nose.
“She hit my son in his leg when she tried to reach over him,” Barquera told Channel 2.
The father said his son has problems with speech, but is a good boy.
“He’s a sweet boy,” Barquera told Channel 2. “He’s pretty mellow.”
Susan Hale, a spokeswoman for Fulton County schools, said while school police found no criminal action, the school’s employee complaints department is investigating the alleged incident.
“An allegation was brought to our district’s attention in May that a student was tapped on the leg by his teacher,” Hale said in an email.
Barquera said he reported the incident to the principal, but he feels like the school isn’t taking the allegation seriously enough.
Hale said she doesn’t know when the investigation will formally conclude.
“With school being out, it sometimes takes longer for our HR department to talk with others (due to their schedules, etc.) so we don’t know yet,” she wrote in an email Friday.
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