IFN Staff
Two Troutman Elementary School employees have been charged with assaulting EC students following a criminal investigation by the Troutman Police Department.
The TPD announced the arrests of Kassidy Ross, 23, of Statesville and Juanita Nesbit, 59, of Troutman in a news release Tuesday.
The Troutman Elementary school resource officer began investigating on October 2 after receiving a report about a possible assault involving a teacher assigned to work with exceptional children.
As a result of the initial investigation, the officer obtained an arrest warrant charging Ross with assault on an individual with disabilities. She was arrested on October 10 and received a $5,000 secured bond.
In addition, Ross was suspended from her position at the school immediately, according to the news release.
The TPD Criminal Investigation Unit was later contacted by Iredell-Statesville Schools officials who shared concerns about additional incidents at Troutman Elementary.
While reviewing more than 100 hours of classroom video, the detectives observed 13 additional incidents in which Ross appeared to assault students, according to the news release.
Investigators also observed one assault committed by Nesbit, who works as a teacher assistant, police said.
Both individuals were arrested on additional charges of assault on an individual with disabilities. Ross was ordered held without bond. Nesbit received a $2,500 secured bond.
“We thank the administrative staff at Troutman Elementary School for promptly reporting this incident to law enforcement as soon as they received the information and for the assistance provided by Iredell-Statesville Schools during the investigation,” the TPD said.
All adults who work with special needs children in particular must have required extensive training and education to do so. In addition, the school system must be held responsible as well for making sure there aren’t too many special needs children assigned to teachers and for oversight of these adults. In many cases, I’ve witnessed a clear lack of support from BOE’s to hire enough staff and leadership to prevent this sort of thing happening.
Anyone who deals with especially severely emotionally disturbed children, knows they require constant supervision and intervention.
For those who are judgmental against these two people, I urge you to know the whole situation these people faced. They should lose their jobs and pay consequences for harming anyone, but others must be held accountable to.
Tell me again how wonderful the ISS school system is. Abusive teachers, coaches and assistants. The responsibility lies with the school board, superintendent and school administrators. To those people: Do better. To the public: Elect better board members.