Albany, GA — A high school assistant principal trying to break up a fight allegedly tossed a 13-year-old girl across the cafeteria like a rag doll.
Dougherty County School System police confirmed today that they are investigating the incident captured on cell phone video (see below) that occurred at Monroe High School in Albany, Georgia. According to Fox 31 , police said that “the fight happened Wednesday, December 5th in the school cafeteria, and we are currently reviewing video surveillance from the school about the incident.”
Officials also plan to interview the principal and other witnesses to determine what charges, if any, should be filed.
The Albany Herald provides further information on what happened in the school cafeteria on Wednesday:
“The video shows a man identified as assistant principal Joey James wading into a scuffle between two females in the school lunch room and pulling one of the girls to the ground, effectively ending the fight.”
Fox 31 reports that the Georgia Professional Standards Commission is processing a separate complaint against the principal unrelated to the lunch room fight.
The Albany Uncovered website offered this assessment of the principal’s actions:
“The video is only about 13 seconds long but at the end we can clearly see Assistant Principal Joey James come up behind one of the females, grab her by the shoulders of her shirt and instantly throw her to the ground several feet behind where she was standing. The student went flying through the air and is fortunate she did not hit her head on the hard floor, which could have resulted in a concussion or much worse.
“… Parents are up in arms about this flagrant abuse of power in the school setting… This act of throwing a student to the ground is certainly not approved under Georgia statutes and is inappropriate buy any standard..”
Did the assistant principal act properly or improperly when he intervened in the cafeteria fight?
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