A Gwinnett mother was arrested on child cruelty charges because she burned her son’s arm to discipline him, police said Wednesday.
Oumou Barry, 25, told police last week that she had burned her son’s arm to teach him the consequences of stealing, according to a report filed by Gwinnett Officer T.R. Dunaway.
The child’s arm was burned in three places, causing one blister — which is indicative of a third-degree burn — the size of a dime, according to the report.
Dunaway was called to Jackson Elementary School on Sever Road near Lawrenceville on Nov. 11 after school authorities noticed one of the burns. The child said his mother had accidentally burned him with an iron but Barry admitted the wrongdoing and that “she was not a good mother” when questioned, Dunaway reported.
The child also “stated that Ms. Barry told him that if he told anyone about being burned with the iron she would cut him from his lips to his ear,” Dunaway wrote in the report. The child “appeared scared that police were there talking t0 him about the burns.”
Barry said she had heated a spoon and placed it on her son’s arm, causing him to scream and when he moved it jostled the spoon, causing the multiple burns, Dunaway reported.
“Ms. Barry then began to get upset and stated that she knows she should not have done it but she was trying to scare him to get him to stop stealing,” Dunaway wrote. “Ms. Barry stated that she was not a good mother and promised it would never happen again.”
The boy was released into the custody of his father. Dunaway arrested Barry on a charge of felony child abuse. She was released from the Gwinnett County jail on a nearly $3,000 bond the same day.
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