February 16, 2008 / Brooklyn news / Police Blotter / Fort Greene–Clinton Hill

BOOKED! Hey, teacher — leave them kids alone!

By Harry Cheadle

for The Brooklyn Paper

Tools

Print this story

Facebook this

Tweet this

Digg this

Del.icio.us

Email to a friend

Your name

Your email address

Recipients’ email addresses (Up to ten, separated by commas.)

Most principals tell kids to hit the books, but on Feb. 5, a principal at a private elementary school in Fort Greene was arrested for using a book to hit a kid, cops said.

A student at the school told police that the principal struck him so roughly in the head with a book that he had headaches and blurry vision days later.

The 9-year-old said that he was in class at around 3:30 pm, when his teacher thought he was drawing instead of paying attention.

The teacher then pointed this out to the principal.

“This is what he does all day,” the teacher said, prompting the principal to ask the pupil, “This is what you do in my class?”

At that point, according to the allegation reported by police, the principal lost control, first slapping the student in the face with an open hand, then grabbing a nearby hardback book and bringing it down on the boy’s head.

Afterwards, the principal called the student into his office, apologized for hitting him, swore it would never happen again, and asked the kid not to tell anyone about it, the child told cops.

The boy did tell his mother, who took him to the hospital where he was treated for a head injury. He was still complaining of blurry vision and headaches, however.

A call to the principal was not returned.

©2008 Community Newspaper Group