RENO, Nev. (775 Times, NV Globe) – After what the principle of Dilworth Middle School characterized in an email as “an altercation… that ended in an injury for a staff member,” school police were summoned to the school on December 15.
She claimed the event featured a teacher being thrown into a locker by a kid during an interview with a DMS instructor.
The mother of that youngster, Jennifer Nolan, got in touch with me and said that even though her son has behavioral problems, he did not assault the instructor.
“Hitting anyone or staff or even a female, he just doesn’t do,” Nolan said. “This is the third incident now and the prior ones, they suspended him, and then he tells me he got no involvement in it. So, my son gets in trouble, you know, and I’m calling him more or less a liar and he tells me ‘I’m telling the truth, I’m telling the truth mom’, and wind up being he does tell the truth.”
Nolan is standing by his version of events because he feels awful for not trusting the seventh grader when she claims he was correct.
“She was in the door and she was checking our uniforms out and I was like, ‘I’m not waiting in this long line’,” said Nolan’s son during a hearing with the school’s principal, assistant principal, and the behavioral superintendent. “She grabbed on to another student and she tried to grab on to me and I was like ‘No’, and I did a juke on her and she stepped on my foot, lost her balance and smacked into the locker.”
The assistant principal acknowledges throughout the hearing that she was unable to observe the child touch the employee on the security camera.
“You see him in front of her and the next thing you know you see him on the side and behind her,” said Melissa Cook Sanford, assistant principal at DMS.
She continues by saying that school police have improved alternatives for reviewing evidence, including video.
“The reports from the other adults and students do say he grabbed her arm. I can’t say that, one way or the other,” said Cook Sanford.
Nolan claims that her kid has been suspended and is meant to be attending a different facility. She had not received a response from the school at the time of the interview.
“My son has been stressed out about it, one of his friends can’t even hang out with him anymore, until they find out if he did it or not, and that’s messed up,” she said. “They put it as if he’s guilty as if he did it and with none of them seeing the video, I don’t see how they can sit there and keep blaming or making these accusations on a child.”
Nolan said saying she doesn’t know why the school would pick out her kid but that the claims are untrue. Even still, the mother of four claims that several students have come up to her to verify her son’s account. She encourages other parents whose kids have been wrongly accused to speak forward.
Teachers at DMS claim that there has always been a problem with student aggression toward employees and that the system and staffing shortages are to blame.
The kid acknowledged at the hearing that if he had adhered to the guidelines, this wouldn’t have happened. According to Nolan, he is accused of violence against a protected party. The family is currently looking for legal counsel.
Asking Washoe County School District for a response and confirmation that school administration supports the penalty. According to the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act, they were unable to comment on disciplinary actions. Additionally, a public records request was made to get the police report, video surveillance, and statements; however, this request was turned down since the materials contained juvenile justice system information, which is deemed to be secret by law.
Credits: KOLO TV
Copyright 2022 775 Times, NV Globe. All rights reserved.