A Spalding County middle school teacher is facing multiple charges after she was accused of swinging a laptop charger at a student and hitting a second student in the head who was standing nearby, officials said.
Cassandra Barlow, a teacher at Kennedy Road Middle School in Griffin, voluntarily went to the Spalding sheriff’s office to be interviewed Wednesday evening, the same day the incident took place, Sheriff Darrell Dix said in a news release. Barlow was “fully cooperative and forthcoming” with investigators, Dix said, and she was charged the following day with battery and simple assault.
Barlow was booked into the Spalding County Jail on Thursday and later released on $2,000 bond, a sheriff’s office spokesman said.
Dix said that school administrators immediately provided video of the incident, which began when Barlow entered her classroom and found a student sitting in her chair behind her desk. The video shows her grabbing a laptop charger from the desk and swinging the plug-end at the student, Dix said. Barlow missed that student but hit a second student in the forehead, according to the sheriff.
While the student who had been hit lay on the floor, Barlow swung the power cord two more times at the student in her chair while the student tried to shield himself, Dix said. The student who had been hit stood up, covered his forehead with his T-shirt and left the classroom with Barlow. Dix said the student had a small cut and some swelling on his forehead.
Barlow has been placed on administrative leave by the Griffin-Spalding County School System, a spokesman said in the news release. Her status will be decided after the sheriff’s office and school system complete their investigations.
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