Teaches Accused Of Bullying Students & Forcing Them To Fight
It's hard to believe stuff like this is going on in Elementary schools in our country.
Two Louisiana teachers have been arrested after multiple students came forward accusing them of continually bullying them and forcing them to fight each other in fear that the teachers would fail them. According to reports, they even told one student to "kill herself" numerous times.
Tracy Gallow, 50, and Ann Marie Shelvin, 44, teachers at Washington Elementary School, threatened to fail kids who wouldn’t fight the 11-year-old, and one was caught on school video shoving the girl into gymnasium bleachers, the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Wednesday.
The 11-year-old’s mother contacted the sheriff about Shelvin in February, but said the bullying began in October, the sheriff’s office said. Deputies directed her to the school board.
Less than two months later, the mother returned to the sheriff’s office, saying that Shelvin tried to goad three students into fighting the girl by threatening to fail them, and that the teacher encouraged the 11-year-old to kill herself, the sheriff’s office said.One student who fingered the teacher as the instigator of a brawl that sent several students to the principal’s office told investigators Shelvin ordered her to fight or lose help with classwork, “just like she refuses to help the 11-year-old,” the sheriff’s statement said. The child reportedly told deputies “she was scared that she would be treated like the 11-year-old and would fail the 7th grade,” according to the statement.
At one point, school officials yanked Shelvin from her class because of the allegations, and a guard escorted her off school grounds.Gallow was assigned to take over the class. She also took over the abuse, according to the sheriff.
Gallow “started pulling, pushing and yelling” at one of the students who reported Shelvin’s bullying to the principal, the sheriff’s statement said. She was twice caught on video shoving the 11-year-old into bleachers, according to the statement. She admitted one of the assaults, saying “she felt she was too upset to go start her testing,” the sheriff said.
Shelvin was charged with two counts of malfeasance, simple battery, intimidation and interference in school operation, and was jailed on $2,000 bond. Gallow faces charges of malfeasance, simple battery, intimidation and interference in school operation. She was ordered held on $1,500. -(Huffington post)