A Florida elementary school principal is under investigation after being captured on video paddling a 6-year-old student in front of her mother, according to authorities.
Melissa Carter, 37, principal of Central Elementary School in Clewiston, is seen using a wooden paddle on a student April 13 for damaging a computer screen.
The mother recorded the punishment in horror as Carter spanked her bent-over, whimpering child next to school clerk Cecilia Self, 62, who was there to interpret. Self’s Spanish-to-English interpretations were inaccurate, the mother told WINK-TV, a CBS affiliate in Fort Myers.
“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, who has not been publicly identified, told the station.
The next day, the Clewiston Police Department received a call from the Hendry Regional Medical Center requesting an officer be dispatched for a complaint of a child with injuries, the department said in a news release on Sunday. Her mother had requested a police report.
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“The Clewiston Police Department, Department of Children and Families, and the Hendry County Sheriff’s Office have been provided information regarding this matter,” the release said. “The investigation remains ongoing at this time.”
Brent Probinsky, the family’s attorney, told The Washington Post in an interview that the police department has turned its investigation over to the State Attorney’s Office for the 20th Judicial Circuit, which could file criminal charges against Carter and Self.
The State Attorney’s Office for the 20th Judicial Circuit denies that it is investigating the incident, Samantha Syoen, communications director for the office, told The Post on Wednesday morning.
Syoen said that when the Clewiston Police Department is finished with its investigation, its findings will then go to the State Attorney’s Office for review.
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“This principal on April 13 committed a aggravated battery of a 6-year-old child,” Probinsky said, adding that the Florida Department of Education is also investigating the incident. “If the state attorney does their job, what they are obligated to do, we’d like them to charge the principal and her assistant with a felony.”
He said he and the family would also like to see Carter’s and Self’s teaching licenses revoked.
Probinsky told TMZ the mother was hesitant to step in and stop the principal during the incident because of her immigration status, fearing she and her husband could face deportation to Mexico if she reported what happened.
“Nobody should be afraid just for saying, ‘I’m Hispanic,’ ” the mother told WINK-TV.
The school called the mother April 13 to tell her there was a $50 fee for the damage her daughter had caused to a computer, WINK-TV reported.
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When she went to the school to pay the fee, she saw her child in Carter’s office with Self and no deputy, as she had been promised, according to the station.
The mother told the station she worried about the small gathering unfolding before her with no cameras around, so she concealed her phone in her purse to record the encounter.
Share this articleShare“Nobody would have believed me,” she told WINK-TV. “I sacrificed my daughter, so all parents can realize what’s happening in this school.”
Carter told the child she should be glad she wasn’t her daughter because she would spank her all the time for her behavior, according to video and audio obtained by TMZ.
“I wish you would try to call the police on me,” she tells the child, according to audio. “That’s called being a brat. … I wouldn’t give you money for anything. I wouldn’t get you nice clothes. You would get what you got, and that’s it.”
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Self instructs the sniffling child to stick out her bottom over a chair to prepare for the punishment as Carter stands to the child’s left with paddle in hand, the video shows.
The first blow causes the child to stand up and cry harder, but Carter directs her to put her hands down so she can deliver more hits.
After three hits, Carter yells at the child to sit down and tells her to not treat her mother poorly before putting down her paddle on a desk, the video shows.
Self tells the sobbing and heaving child that the next time she comes to the office, a paddling would happen again.
The student has to remove her mask to breathe properly after the hitting and yelling, the video shows.
Carter tells the student that the paddling might make her think before she misbehaves again.
Calls from The Post to Carter and Self were not returned.
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Probinsky said Carter has been placed on administrative leave.
The mother told WINK-TV that she wants to secure justice for her daughter because she couldn’t stand up for her. According to Probinsky, the incident has left the child sleepless and teary, prompting state authorities to provide psychological counseling.
The child has been transferred to another school within the district at her mother’s request, he said.
“This principal is dangerous to children under her authority,” Probinsky said. “Everyone has to be concerned with children in public school under people who are cruel.”
Beverly Thompson, the Hendry County School Board administrative secretary, told The Post that the situation is under investigation but provided no further comment.
Florida allows corporal punishment, but Hendry County schools do not.
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