FLORIDA (WJW) — Authorities are investigating a Florida principal who was seen on camera paddling a student for damaging a computer.
WINK reports the child’s mother recorded the video of Central Elementary School Principal Melissa Carter.
It reportedly happened April 13. WINK reports the school called the 6-year-old girl’s mother saying she’d damaged a computer and that there would be a $50 fee.
The mother went to the school to pay the fee and was taken to the principal’s office. Her daughter, the principal and a school clerk were in the room. The mother said she began to get nervous, so she hit record on her phone.
She told WINK the principal “started to scream.” She is then seen paddling the little girl with a wooden paddle three times.
After the first hit, the child turned around crying with her hand on her bottom, and the principal said, “no, put your hands down” before swinging twice more.
“The hatred with which she hit my daughter, I mean it was a hatred that, really I’ve never hit my daughter like she hit her,” the mother told WINK. “I had never hit her.”
The mother told WINK she recorded the incident because she felt no one would believe her if she didn’t. She said she was also confused about the process because of a language barrier.
“I sacrificed my daughter, so all parents can realize what’s happening in this school,” she said.
Police and the Department of Children and Families are now investigating. The State Attorney’s Office is also looking into the incident. WINK reports corporal punishment is not permitted in the school district.
The principal, clerk and school district have not responded to WINK’s requests for comment.