SPALDING COUNTY, Ga. — A teacher at Kennedy Road Middle School in Spalding County has been arrested for slapping a 12-year-old student.
The student, who wished to remain anonymous, told Channel 2′s Tom Regan that a classmate was harassing her, and she then confronted him.
“He started ripping up my paper and going into my stuff. I tried to rip up his paper, but when I was over there, I was up against a wall, and she (the teacher) slapped me. She slapped her hand so hard, my face turned. Right after she slapped me, she hugged me. I just walked out of the classroom and went to the bathroom,” the student said.
The student’s mother showed Regan a picture of the red hand mark on her daughter’s face. She said her daughter has dyslexia.
“I mean, she slapped my daughter in a classroom with a bunch of children around. She’s never been in any trouble before. Never had any disciplinary actions,” parent Miranda Fowler said.
The mother said school officials took her daughter’s phone away following the incident. She and sheriff’s investigators say school administrators did not immediately notify the school resource officer of the incident, and that he learned about it after the child visited with a school nurse.
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The mother said several weeks ago, she complained about the teacher’s classroom conduct, after her daughter took phone video of her yelling at another student.
“I went to the school and said if this teacher cannot control herself or the classroom, she doesn’t need to be a teacher, and no one can learn in that environment,” said Fowler
The teacher, Sowjayna Ballikurva, 44, surrendered to the Spalding County Sherriff’s Office and is charged with one count of simple battery.
The student’s mother said while school administrators apologized, she is reluctant to send her child back to the school.
“If they have no control over the school and the teachers, I’m not sending my child back to an unsafe environment,” Fowler said.
“I feel she shouldn’t be a teacher anymore,” the student told Regan.
The school district said they contacted law enforcement after speaking to the student, her mother and the teacher.
The district also said school officials followed protocol in reporting the incident. The teacher is on administrative leave.
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