4-year-old spanked at East Lake Elementary, teacher's aide under investigation
Atlanta public school officials are looking into an alleged incident where a 4-year-old East Lake Elementary student is accusing a teacher’s aide of spanking her with a shoe.
Keith Bromery, an APS spokesman said the incident is being investigated and in the meantime, the aide has been re-assigned to other duties outside of the school and away from children.
“We are trying to determine what happened. Until then, she is no longer around children,” Bromery said. “No one is allowed to discipline a child by the use of force.”
But that was not the case, according one student in the Pre-K program.
Virginia Leslie said on Sept. 21, her granddaughter was taken out of music class for apparently, “acting out.”
“When I picked her up, we walked home,” Leslie said. “We were walking and talking and when we got home, she said she got a whopping.”
Leslie said her granddaughter told her that the aide pulled down the child's panties, pulled her skirt up and beat the child's bare bottom with her shoe.
Leslie said when she returned to the school the next day, she reported the incident to school officials and confronted the aide, who denied the spanking.
Leslie also filed a police report Monday.
“I don’t think she should be able to work with children anymore,” Leslie said. “If that is what she is going to do, we don’t need her in the classroom.”
The child has not returned to school since the incident.
About the Author
Ernie Suggs is an enterprise reporter covering race and culture for the AJC since 1997. A 1990 graduate of N.C. Central University and a 2009 Harvard University Nieman Fellow, he is also the former vice president of the National Association of Black Journalists. His obsession with Prince, Spike Lee movies, Hamilton and the New York Yankees is odd.
