NEWNAN, Ga. — Four students in a Coweta County special needs classroom have transferred out of the school amid abuse allegations.
Newnan Police are now investigating the claims.
11Alive's Kaitlyn Ross talked to parents on Monday who said they are furious that the school did not act sooner to remove a teacher who is under investigation in connection with the claims.
Parents say a paraprofessional began reporting the alleged abuse in early December, outlining six separate concerns about the special needs teacher to the school's principal.
But the school only sent a letter to parents about the investigation to parents late last week.
Parents say they are afraid the school district is not doing enough to protect their children.
Twelve-year-old Aiden has always loved school, but his mom, Jillian Wooten, says this year when they got a new teacher in the special needs classroom at Elm Street Elementary, that started to change.
"None of us parents were told there were abuse allegations, just problems with discipline," she said.
Wooten said that when she pushed for more information, she found out the paraprofessional teacher in the room had filed six child abuse allegations against the teacher in the classroom to the principal.
11Alive News is working to discover when the school reported the allegations to police.
State law mandates a report be filed to police with 24 hours of an allegation.
"From day one, this wasn't taken seriously enough, from day one, the image of this school has been what's important," Wooten said.
The Superintendent of the School put a statement out on January 16, alerting parents there was an investigation into the abuse and the timeliness of the reports.
Four families say they decided to transfer their children out of the school after hearing the allegations. They all say the school did not act quickly enough.
"I feel like they failed our kids," said Jessica Collins.
"To see what the teacher did, it's like a nightmare -- a nightmare," said Jamarcus Godfrey.
"She's a fun-loving child. And to know that our child was targeted and bullied by a teacher is absolutely outlandish if you know who she is," said Melissa Wilson.
The school says the accused teacher filed a counter-complaint against the accuser.
Both are now suspended with pay while police investigate what happened.
But the parapro who says she filed the complaints says she didn't do anything wrong, and was only trying to alert the district to the alleged abuse.
"The message that it sends to all other teachers is that if you witness abuse, you might think twice before reporting it -- because this has ruined a career that I loved," said paraprofessional Nicole Marshall.
"This whole thing has been handled so badly, I'm being seen as a child abuser, when all I was trying to do was protect the kids in my class," said Marshall.
Seven of the students’ parents have hired attorneys to protect their children.
Police say the allegations are under investigation.
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