Autistic student's charges may be dropped

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Autistic student's charges may be dropped

by Quimby/The Tallapoosa Journal Times Georgian

http://www.times-georgian.com/view/full_story/11497633/article-Autistic-student-s-charges-may-be-dropped?instance%3Dwest_ga_news

It is still unclear whether the Haralson County District Attorney’s office will press charges against an autistic student arrested from Haralson County High School on Wednesday, Feb. 9, though administrators with the school system and the sheriff’s office believe the charges will be dropped.According to Public Information Officer for the Haralson County Sheriff’s Office Jim Beck, a 17-year-old student from HCHS was taken to the Haralson County Jail after a school resource officer made the decision to place her under arrest for allegedly assaulting a member of the high school faculty. According to a representative of the DA’s office, the attorney handling the case has not yet received a report from the Sheriff’s Office on the case, though one is expected by next week.Beck said that the school resource officer who made the decision to transport the student to the jail is employed with the sheriff’s office to work at the school in assisting the administrators and teachers in the school’s orderly functioning.“He’s a fully-certified officer,” Beck said. HCHS Principal Needham said that because the student was over the age of 17, the situation had to be handled differently.“At 17, they’re considered adults. If it’s a fight, they normally expect us to handle the first incident using our protocol. If it’s not the first incident, we file charges for those involved,” Needham said. “In a very severe situation, we file a juvenile complaint if they’re under 17.”Needham said the school has no tolerance for fighting, and that the school will deal with the aspect of the incident from the school’s standpoint – a violation of the student code of conduct, which normally results in suspension.Beck said the Sheriff’s Office has been under fire from child advocacy groups all over the country after WSB-TV Channel 2 in Atlanta posted the story last week. The sheriff’s office received some flack from the initial story, and Sheriff Eddie Mixon released the following statement on Feb. 10: “As the father of six children, I understand the outrage over any suggestion that a child has been mistreated. Unfortunately, the misreporting and mischaracterization of this situation has generated a great deal of confusion. Law officers are called on to make split-second decisions in difficult situations in order to insure the safety of the citizens they serve. While this teenager was detained she was never put into the general jail population. As a matter of fact, she sat with our jail administrator as the paperwork was completed to allow for her release. In this incident, the 17-year-old female was lawfully detained for both her safety and that of the school personnel.”Haralson County School Superintendent Brett Stanton promised last week to investigate the matter and said that after speaking with Mixon and administrators at HCHS, he is satisfied with the way the situation was handled.“We have a student resource officer at the middle school and the high school, and we entrust them to make sure the law is enforced,” Stanton said. “I trust the Sheriff’s Department, I’ve been pleased with my experiences in working with them.”Stanton said the student was originally taken to the jail on two counts of simple battery and for obstruction of law enforcement. He said that in most cases disciplinary situations are handled within the school by administrators, but in the cases of fights and assault, it is not uncommon for local law enforcement agencies to be involved.“This is not a common thing that we deal with,” Needham said. “Unfortunately, we do deal with violence from time to time.”While the Sheriff’s Office did not release the student’s name to the Gateway-Beacon, other news sources have identified her as Tessie . Neither nor her parents could be reached for comment before press time.