It seemed casual, which makes the physical confrontation between a football coach and an 11-year-old boy even more troubling. What allegedly prompted the altercation is even more disturbing.
BeTreylin Elder, who also teaches at DeRenne Middle School in Savannah, Georgia, is captured on video grabbing the sixth grader by his shirt, lifting him off the ground and effortlessly tossing him over a row of desks.
The boy’s mother, Che’nelle Russell, received the video last Friday and a call from the school. She alleges Elder had made inappropriate comments about her to her son, TJ.
“So my son then went to the front of the classroom to approach the teacher, letting him know, ‘Hey, stop talking about my mom,'” Russell said in an interview with WTOC in Savannah. “The teacher then came closer to my son. My son again said, ‘Stop talking about my mom’, and also wanted to call me.”
“From that point, he was then grabbed and thrown to the floor like nothing,” she said.
Elder allegedly told the class he had “left his shoes at TJ’s mom’s house.”
Russell said she had never met the teacher before and was appalled that he would make such disparaging comments to a roomful of sixth graders.
The video clip made public by WTOC starts with both Elder and the boy touching each other. Elder cuffs the front of the student’s shirt and pushes him away. After he was thrown onto the desks, Elder allegedly grabbed TJ and shoved him out of the classroom, according to the outlet’s report. The school’s assistant principal witnessed the confrontation, according to Russell.
The Savannah Chatham County Public School System addressed the incident in a statement to WTOC:
“On December 6, 2024, an incident involving a teacher and student at DeRenne Middle School was reported to district personnel. Following the report, thorough statements were collected, and the teacher was immediately reassigned to an alternate location to ensure they had no interaction with students. Over the weekend, the teacher submitted their resignation, which was received and accepted by SCCPSS Human Resources.”
“Please be assured that this was an isolated incident and we take matters like this extremely seriously,” the statement continued.
TJ suffered a concussion and multiple bruises from the encounter. His mother said he is frightened to return to school.
“(Elder) needs to be placed in jail,” she said. “He hurt my boy. I’m heartbroken because I wouldn’t do that to my child. His father wouldn’t do that to him. So for him to take the initiative to do that is sickening.”
School officials confirmed that the Chatham County Board of Education Police Department has launched an investigation. As of Wednesday afternoon, there is no word on whether criminal charges have been filed against Elder. The now-former teacher told Savannah Morning News that he will not be making any statements about the incident until he gets his “legal affairs in order.” He has since deleted his Facebook page.
