VAN BUREN (KFSM)- Police and school administrators continue to investigate accusations that a middle school teacher hit a student earlier this week. The family spoke exclusively to 5NEWS about the incident.
“The principal called me and told me that our son was hit by a teacher, and so we went up there, and they said that the girl was flicking him with a pencil, and he was flicking her with a pencil, and then the teacher came up behind him, and slapped him in the shoulder and told him to quit,” Stephanie Covey said.
Covey`s son Trevor is an eighth-grader at Northridge Middle School. He said his teacher struck him hard enough on his left shoulder to leave red marks and a handprint.
“I was like did you just hit me? I turned where she was. She said ‘Yes, it was an instinct, I didn’t mean to. Please don’t tell the office. I’m already in trouble’ because she had done it before; she did it to another student,” Trevor Covey said.
Another parent came forward two months ago, also alleging the same teacher slapped her son. That case was reported to the Arkansas Department of Human Services.
The most recent incident happened Tuesday (Jan. 27), when Covey said he was slapped.
“I agree with the teacher,” Shirley Toon, a retired Fort Smith Schools employee said. “She just slapped the kid, you know if that's all she did.”
The Van Buren School District's student policy handbook highlights ways in which students can be disciplined, none including physical punishment.
An older version of the school district handbook states teachers may use physical force for "excessive behavior". That policy no longer exists in the current handbook.
"If it was mine, me, and the teacher, and the principal and the board, we'd all be meeting,” LaDonna Bush said.
5NEWS tried to reach out to the teacher to get her side of the story, but she did not reply to our emails. The boy's parents say they want to press charges.
“I don`t think she needs to be a teacher in the school if she`s going to handle students that way,” Jamey Covey, father said.
So far no arrests have been made, according to Crawford County Prosecutor Marc McCune. The Coveys said they plan to press charges. A slap can be considered a case of second-degree battery, police said. The matter is still under investigation, according to authorities.