Charter School Teacher Allegedly Dragged Student Down The Hall By The Hair [Video]

A teacher at a Chicago charter school was caught on cellphone video allegedly dragging a student down the hall by her hair.

The teacher reportedly was trying to break up a loud hallway conversation between two students when things allegedly got physical between the teacher and a 14-year-old eighth grader, resulting in hair pulling and pushing. The incident allegedly occurred at the Betty Shabazz International Charter School.

Said the student’s mother, “I almost lost it, yes, because no child should be sent to school to have to deal with that abuse from a teacher… When we send our children to school, we feel that they should be in a safe environment. And that was the last thing that I could imagine would happen to my daughter.”

According to the teenager’s mom, her daughter will need emotional counseling but was uninjured in the fracas other than having some of her hair pulled out.

The teacher in question — a well-regarded educator who taught seventh and eight grade at the school — is now out of job. Since she worked at a charter school, she evidently had no elaborate union due process protections to which public school teachers are routinely entitled in disciplinary matters.

School CEO David Ireland said that “There was no clear justification that I could see to keep even a quality teacher who put their hands on a child.”

In Bridgeport, Conn., an elementary school principal allegedly dragged two different kindergarteners down the hall by the legs according to surveillance video from early 2012 that only relatively recently went public. The school superintendent recommended the principal’s termination, but the Board of Education instead suspended her for six months, and she returned to work at a different location in March.

[Image via Shutterstock]

Watch a news video about the alleged charter school assault in Chicago: