HOUSTON (CN) - A third-grade teacher in Texas made 12 girls in her class viciously beat their classmate to punish her for getting some potato chips from her friend, the girl's mother claims in Federal Court.
Teachers at A.G. Hilliard Elementary School in Houston had a de facto motto: "Children who don't understand need to be beaten," according to the March 16 lawsuit.
Teachers enlisted their young students to inflict pain on disruptive classmates, a policy that traumatized four students, and led some of them to start taking medication for anxiety and depression, the kids' mothers claim.
On behalf of their children, Latunda Corbin, Sharman Jones and Yolanda Anderson on Monday sued North Forest Independent School District and former A.G. Hilliard Elementary School Principal Victor Nash.
North Forest Independent School District was closed in July 2013 and absorbed into Houston Independent School District. Houston ISD kept open seven North Forest ISD schools, and A.G. Hilliard Elementary was one of them, a school district employee said.
The lawsuit focuses a harsh spotlight on one teacher: Nichole Hines.
Neither Hines nor any of the teachers mentioned in the 19-page lawsuit are named as defendants.
"Hines was known to be one of the worst offenders. She would leave the student who had misbehaved in the classroom with students of the same gender, and would leave the classroom with the rest of the class to go to the bathroom while the student was 'rushed' and the beating took place," the complaint states.
"These children knew that if they did not listen to Hines and hit the other student, they in turn would be next to be beat up. She also threatened the students by stating that if anyone told, they too would be punished."
The mothers say other teachers at the school sent their problem students to Hines' third-grade class, where Hines would see to it they were beaten.
Corbin claims that Hines and two other teachers, Ms. Lundy and Ms. Katrina Burnside, often made her third-grade son B.R. fight other students during recess.
"On one occasion Ms. Lundy told B.R. to fight another student and when B.R. refused, she punched him in the eye, causing permanent damage," the lawsuit states.
Corbin says that due to the abuse B.R.'s grades dropped and he began acting out at school and becoming aggressive at home. Corbin says she was forced to enroll her son in mental health treatment.
Sharman Jones says her two children had similar experiences at the school.
Hines made Jones's son C.H. square off against another boy in a school hallway, Jones says, even though C.H. was not in her class.
"Hines removed C.H from his class to the hallway where she had her class assembled (roughly 20 students). She told him that he must fight a boy who had struck his sister, who was in Ms. Hines's class. Despite his protests, Ms. Hines forced these two to fight," the lawsuit states. (Parentheses in complaint.)
C.H.'s sister S.H. was in Hines' class and she got it worse than he did, their mother says.
Jones says Hines got mad at S.H. for getting some potato chips from a classmate after Hines' told her she couldn't buy any chips.
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