Schools are considered second homes of children.
These institutions are trusted entirely by parents as they are supposed to be staffed by people who care enough about the education and lives of the students. If a teacher does something cruel to a child, this is already a breach of trust.
Barb Williams had been teaching for ten years in Hancock County. Those with that long teaching experience should know how essential teacher-student interactions are. However, on a day in May 2017, this teacher seemed to lose it.
Maybe Williams was exhausted from grading, the kids were driving her crazy, or perhaps she hadn’t taken her second cup of coffee. But no matter what the reason was, she had no right to do what she did. No excuse would be good enough to defend her action.
The 6-year-old student who suffered from her cruel hands was Ian Nelson.
His parents, Autumn and Anthony, weren’t aware of the teacher’s action toward their son until they saw the footage in the hallway. Ian also didn’t say anything about it either because he was terrified to get into bigger trouble.
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When they found out that their son had been mistreated by a teacher, Ian’s parents were absolutely disheartened.
Ian was walking to or from the comfort room when Williams stopped him. Although it was unclear why she confronted the child, it was evident that she was talking harshly to him.
The teacher didn’t stop there.
She picked the student up and pushed him against the wall. Then, she grabbed his face, wrapped her hand around his chin, and forced the child to look at her. As if that wasn’t enough, William lifted the boy into the air with his shirt, causing Ian’s head to slam back into the wall. This incident left a bruise on the back of his head, but the scared kid didn’t resist the terrifying teacher.
The entire video, William’s body language was confrontational. She stared into his eyes and seemed oblivious that her actions were caught on the school’s CCTV camera.
The school expressed what happened was minor, so the Nelsons believed that the issue was not serious until they saw the surveillance footage.
“We thought it was just a little incident that happened, and that’s what the school made it out to sound like,” the disturbed father expressed. “And then all of a sudden we get this video today, and this is just outrageous.”
Anthony said it was ridiculous that the school was toning down the weight of William’s actions. “If I were to do that to her, I would go to jail.”
Ian’s parents are now pursuing legal action against Williams, asking for her to be stopped from her profession. However, the school sidestepped the issue, saying that she was one of the best teachers and didn’t want to remove her. They also rejected the parents’ request to have Ian moved to another class.
Since the conflict, the school has filed reports with many agencies, including the Department of Education and CPS. No matter what the outcome is, we hope that Ian’s future experiences in school will be positive.
What are your thoughts on this story? Do you agree that the teacher should be removed from her position? Let us know in the comments section below!