A Chicago mother is furious after her 12-year-old special needs son was allegedly beaten up and slammed to the ground by a school employee as other children looked on, CBS Chicago reports.
Monice Guess said that her son, Rashawn, is "hyper" and "moody at times," but that he definitely did not deserve what happened to him Oct. 5.
Guess said a teacher's aide at Foundations College Prep on 109th Place attacked Rashawn in a classroom.
“She grabbed him by the neck, threw him against some steel lockers that’s in the classroom and threw him down [to] the ground and she slapped him a few times,” Guess told the news station.
A school incident report indicates that Rashawn and the teacher's aide got into an argument after the 12-year-old had a verbal altercation with another student. The teacher's aide ordered Rashawn to leave the classroom, but he refused, according to the report.
Witnesses said that the teacher's aide shoved Rashawn to the ground as the boy tried to fight back.
“He did tell me after she attacked him, he picked up a chair. But any dog would bite back,” his mother said.
Guess said that she believes school should be a safe space for her son and that now, "to know someone physically attacked my son, it’s very traumatic to him, traumatic to me and my family.”
The executive director of Foundations told CBS Chicago that the aide is no longer employed at the school, following an internal investigation.
“We expect our staff members to hold protecting students’ safety and well-being as their utmost priority,” Micki O’Neil said. “As such, when a staff member engaged aggressively with a seventh-grade student earlier this month, we acted immediately to address the incident. This investigation led to the determination that, while witness accounts differ from the mother’s characterization of the incident, the staff member’s behavior was unacceptable.”
However, Guess said that she still wants the aide to face charges, and she has filed a police report.
“We are deeply concerned by these allegations, and we have engaged the charter school operator to ensure the allegations were appropriately addressed and proper protocols were followed," Chicago Public Schools spokesperson Michael Passman told the news station.
Read more at CBS Chicago.