A former assistant principal at a school in Alabama has been charged with torturing an 11-year-old boy who had autism.
Donald Eugene Hardyman Jr., 56, has been accused of grabbing the unnamed boy by the shoulders, putting him inside a desk and then flipping the desk over at W.S. Neal Middle School in East Brewton.
Brian Hawsey told WKRG his son came home and complained about the abuse, which had apparently been caught on camera, on August 9.
Hawsey described the video, saying: “He grabs my son by the shoulders, slams him in a desk, then flips the desk over with my son in the desk.
“My son gets back up…he grabs my son by his shoulders again and slams him into another desk.”
“My son has ADHD, he has ADD, ODD [oppositional defiant disorder] and he’s on the autism spectrum,” he added.
The alleged victim told 5 News the incident “made me feel like just running away… and I couldn’t because he had me pinned against the wall in my desk.”
Hardyman resigned from the school last month and has been indicted by an Escambia County grand jury. He is on a $25,000 bond.
Hardyman was arrested on August 30 for torture and willful abuse of a child.
In a statement, Escambia County Schools Superintendent John Knott said: “I cannot comment on an ongoing investigation but I can say [the charges] extend from his work.”
In April, footage emerged of a kindergarten teacher in Kansas kicking a five-year-old girl on her first day. The girl’s mother told KCTV5 News of her horror at watching video footage of the teacher at Bluejacket Flint Elementary School kicking the child in the library.
The unnamed mother said it was “heartbreaking” to watch her daughter hide inside a bookshelf instead of lining up with her fellow students.
Discovering her in the shelf, the teacher appears to take her by the arm, pull her to the floor and then kick the child in the back.
In February, the family of a nine-year-old boy in Chicago claimed he was beaten with a belt.
Asia Gaines, the mother of nine-year-old Jo’Maury Champ, filed a civil rights complaint against the Chicago Board of Education, as well district teacher Kristen Haynes and Haynes’ friend, Juanita Tyler.
Gaines said her son was beaten with two belts by Tyler inside a bathroom at George W. Tilton Elementary School, WLS-TV reported.
In August, a Texas school district was sued for allowing an administrator to draw on a black student’s head with a permanent marker.
Jeanette Peterson, a teacher at Berry Miller Junior High in Pearland, reportedly told seventh-grader Juelz Trice his haircut violated the school’s dress code. Trice’s family has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit.
*story by NewsWeek