CONYERS, Ga. — Police have charged a former Rockdale County schoolteacher with first-degree cruelty to children after police say surveillance video showed her restraining the heads and necks of two 5-year-old special needs students.
It happened at an elementary school, C.J. Hicks in Conyers, earlier this month. Police said surveillance video showed the teacher using her hands to hold down the heads and necks of two 5-year-olds onto the tops of their desks. The children's parents describe them as having nonverbal autism.
"The fact that she was able to carry herself like that and have no consequences, and she was just doing what had to be comfortable almost," said Marcus Thomas, the father of one of the 5-year-olds. "It just makes me feel like the protection wasn’t there for my child."
Attorney Stephen Fowler told reporters Friday that the video shows the teacher, Janice Foot, "forcibly pushing the head and the neck of students down multiple times while yelling at them loud, very loud, in a disturbing manner."
Fowler said another school employee interrupted what Conyers Police described as an attack.
"Personally, it makes me feel livid. I want justice. I want accountability," said the father of the other child, Darryl Harden.
The parents spoke at a Midtown law office where they could become parties to a lawsuit. They fault the Rockdale School System for failing to notify them about the incident and failing to file police reports, which the parents said they had to do.
Foot was taken into custody and is out on bond after being booked into the Rockdale County Jail.
"Detectives ask that anyone with information regarding abuse that may be related to this investigation contact the Conyers Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Division at 770-929- 4203," a police statement said.