VIDEO: ‘Teachers’ drag 7-year-old autistic boy through school hallway, escape charges

The boy’s outraged mother shared a video of the horrifying incident, which she says is child abuse

Two schoolteachers in Ohio will not face criminal charges after they dragged a 7-year-old boy with autism through the school on the floor, the Telegraph-Forum reports.

When a prosecutor decided this week not to charge the teachers with felonies, the boy’s mother, Bonnie McKean, posted video of the incident on Facebook.

The footage quickly went viral. As of Sunday morning, the video had nearly 148,000 views and 1,500 shares.

McKean told Inside Edition that the actions against her son, Corbin Kemle, amounted to “child abuse” and that the teachers should at least face misdemeanors.

“No charges were filed against these women,” McKean said. “It’s just not good enough.”

She added: “This was child abuse. He could have fallen or been hurt while being dragged down the hall.”

Even though McKean said she had given the school instructions on how to help calm Corbin, she said she got a call on the first Friday of May informing her that Corbin was acting up and could not stay at school. She said she grounded him for the weekend and that he felt bad about what he had done.

The following week, on May 8, McKean said she got another call notifying her that Corbin was “hitting, kicking and biting his teachers.”

She arrived to the school within minutes and found Corbin hiding under a chair in the school office.

That was just after the teachers had dragged him through the school, but McKean said she was not told of the incident for nearly a week. When school officials showed her the footage, she said she wanted to cry and hug Corbin.

While the two teachers, Hannah Ruth and Heather Gregory, will not be charged criminally, they could be punished by both the school district and the state of Ohio.

Noreen Mullens, superintendent of the Crestline Exempted Village School District, said the teachers have been on administrative leave since the incident and will be disciplined.

The teachers also could lose their teaching licenses, but it’s possible that if they do return to teaching, they would have to undergo training and counseling, Mullens said.

McKean said while she understands that her son’s autism is not an excuse for his behavior, she believes the teachers should have handled the situation differently. She said she does not look forward to sending Corbin back to school.

“As parents, we are supposed to trust the school and its employees are doing their job and that our kids are being taken care of while they are there,” McKean said. “I may never trust that again.”

 

Feature photo: Facebook