A mother is demanding answers after she says another parent alerted her to footage of a school employee dragging her 7-year-old son off a school bus by his feet.
The April 12 incident involved students at Robert R. Church Elementary School in Memphis, Tenn., FOX 13 reported. Kimberly Hardin said the school failed to inform her about what went down on her child’s school bus last week.
“Another parent of a child at the school contacted me Friday evening, and she said she had video of the teacher dragging my son off the school bus,” Hardin told FOX 13. ” … Her son recorded it.”
The child was reportedly left with a concussion and several bruises on his back, his mother said. Now he’s afraid to go back to school.
“Because of the way he was dragged, he hit his head,” Hardin said at a news conference attended by members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and other Black clergy members. “I feel bad. I didn’t believe my child.”
A suspected white supremacist elementary school employee in Memphis TN is caught on video violently dragging a 7 year old Black child off a bus by his feet pic.twitter.com/rYzgJgLbcJ
— Tariq Nasheed 🇺🇸 (@tariqnasheed) April 18, 2018
In a statement, Shelby County Schools officials said the teacher was attempting to break up a fight. The mother maintains that her child was not a part of that fight, however, and said the district didn’t care to inform her about the incident until days later. The short clip shows the young boy screaming for his mother as he’s dragged off the bus.
The incident is currently being investigated by the district, as is the educator involved. He’s since been placed on administrative leave while the probe is underway. SCS Superintendent Dorsey Hopson said the employee could face punishment, including termination if the child was injured and he is found responsible.
“We take any report involving student safety very seriously, and immediately reported this situation to the appropriate authorities,” the district said in a statement. “Per standard District procedure, this employee has been removed from the school while the matter is being investigated.”
