A paraprofessional at a school in Cumming was arrested last week after police say she hit a student in the head with her purse.
According to the incident report, Cumming officers were called to The Futures Program last Tuesday morning.
When investigators arrived, the school’s principal said that a 10-year-old had gotten upset with 56-year-old Felicita Herrington and began yelling and throwing things at her.
The principal reported that at one point, the student pushed her and Herrington hit him with her purse.
The student’s eye was red and puffy, but there were no other injuries, according to the incident report.
Herrington told police that she initially assigned the students math problems to complete, while their teacher was stuck in a meeting, when the 10-year-old at the center of the incident began pushing tables around.
The teacher came back a short time later and left again to make copies, the incident report reads.
The teacher reported that when she came back into the room, she heard Herrington say, “If you hit me, I’ll hit you with my purse.”
The teacher reported seeing the student jump at Herrington and she swung her purse at him. She stated that the boy kept charging at Herrington until she was able to get him out of the room.
Herrington told police that she did not intentionally swing her purse at the boy, but admitted it may have hit him while she was swinging it around.
Officers ultimately arrested Herrington and charged her with one count of cruelty to children.
She was booked into the Forsyth County Jail, but has since been released. Her employment status is unclear.
The Forsyth County School District told WSB that The FUTURES Program is housed in a Forsyth County Schools building but is not run by the district.
The principal of the Forsyth FUTURES Program and the FUTURES Program GNETS Director released the following statement on Monday:
“We are aware of the incident between a staff member and a student on 9/6/22. Almost immediately after the incident and as soon as an administrator was aware, we informed the School Resource Officer, who began the investigation that resulted in the arrest of the staff member. That staff member did not have further interactions with students after the incident and will not be working with any of our students in the future. Naturally, the safety and well-being of all our students and staff are of paramount importance. We cannot comment further on an ongoing investigation.”
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