The Cumming Police Department arrested a FUTURES Program school paraprofessional from Cumming on Tuesday, Sept. 6 who is accused of striking a student with her purse.
An officer with the Cumming Police Department arrived at the school on 136 Almon C Hill Dr. around 11 a.m. in response to an incident between a student and a teacher.
Paraprofessional Felicita Herrington, 56, was supervising a math classroom while the teacher, Heather Callaway, was in a meeting. Herrington left math problems on the board, but a 10-year-old boy became upset that the math class was not running on time.
The student said he did not want to complete the math problems and then he began pushing tables around. Callaway returned to the classroom and was informed of the situation, and then she left to print out more math problems.
While Callaway was away, the boy allegedly pushed tables, threw Uno cards at Herrington and told her that she was stupid. The boy then took Herrington’s purse while she was trying to get someone’s attention in the hallway about his behavior. Herrington got the purse back, which she allegedly used to defend herself.
Callaway returned to the classroom for a second time and found Herrington behind her desk and clutching her purse while the boy was pacing back and forth in front of the desk. According to a report from the Cumming Police Department, Callaway heard Herrington tell the boy, “if you hit me, I will hit you with my purse.”
The boy lunged at Herrington, and Callaway tried to pull him away by placing her arm under his arm and across his chest. At about the same time, Herrington reportedly swung her purse at the boy and made contact with his face.
Herrington later told authorities that she did not intentionally hit the boy. She said she was trying to defend herself and keep the boy away.
Calloway said the boy continued to charge at Herrington until he was eventually removed from the room. The boy had redness and puffiness around his right eye but he did not sustain any other injuries.
The FUTURES Program is a school for mentally and behaviorally challenged students. The school, which has multiple locations across northeast Georgia, provides teachers with de-escalation training on handling students who are in a crisis. Teachers at the FUTURES Program know that outbursts like these may occur throughout the day.
Herrington was taken to the Forsyth County Jail without incident, where she was charged with 2nd-degree cruelty to children.
