An acting-principal has been accused of pushing an 11-year-old student and pulling out three of her braids following a classroom dispute in Wisconsin.
HuffPost reports Rob Mueller-Owens, a teacher who has temporarily been acting as the principal of Madison, Wisconsin's Whitehorse Middle School, has been placed on leave and will not be allowed to return to the school following the incident.
Mikiea Price, the mother of the 11-year-old, says the incident happened on February 13 and left her daughter distraught.
Price says she received a call from her daughter and came to the school as quickly as she could. When she arrived, she says her tween was in tears and had a visibly cracked, bleeding lip.
"[My daughter] handed me three of her braids that were pulled out from her scalp," Price said.
A Madison teacher is on leave after a student said he pushed her and pulled out three of her braids (In the photo you can see where those used to be). I spoke with her mom today, who said her daughter is still traumatized and has not been able to return to school. #News3Now
pic.twitter.com/iASs6UtZt8— Amy Reid (@amyreidreports) February 21, 2019
Pastor Marcus Allen, the family's religious leader and spokesperson, told Yahoo the student said the trouble began after she and a friend sprayed perfume on themselves in the bathroom before returning to class. The perfume smell reportedly activated the teacher's allergies, disrupting the class. The teacher asked who had sprayed perfume; when no one answered, Mueller-Owens was called into the classroom.
Allen says the young girl then admitted she had sprayed the perfume and was asked to leave the classroom. The incident that left the 11-year-old without her braids happened in the hallway and was recorded on the school's surveillance system.
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Allen claims surveillance video shows Mueller-Owens pushing the student from her classroom to the other side of the hall, where she hit a row of lockers. Mueller-Owens then reportedly falls on top of the girl and stays on her for 10 to 15 seconds.
Price described the video as "a very disturbing sight to see.” It will not be released to the public until an investigation into the incident is complete.
Mueller-Owens is reportedly a behavior support coach who was recognized for his work in restorative justice at the White House only two years ago.
“That's the devastating part about it," Price told Fox 47. "To have that much education and that much training and that much knowledge, to be certified with kids and not follow protocol, I think that's the part that hurt me the most and disappointed me the most.”
The mother says her daughter is traumatized and has not returned to the school since the incident.
“You know I send my kid to school to learn, and that's a place where mothers send their kids to be comfortable in," Price said. "I just feel violated in so many ways that this even happened to her.”
The family is hiring an attorney, and Price has already filed a lawsuit against the Madison Metropolitan School District. She says the school did not call her to inform her of the incident and alleges officials didn't call for a nurse or doctor to examine her daughter.
The school district responded to the incident in a written statement, saying district officials "take any situation of this nature very seriously."
The statement also said Mueller-Owens would not be allowed to return to Whitehorse Middle School.
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