The father of a second-grade student in Immokalee said his son and five other boys were slapped by a teacher during a lockdown drill. The incident reportedly happened Friday morning at Village Oaks Elementary School, after the teacher apparently demanded to know which of the boys was giggling.
"I want this investigated, and I want answers," said James Brown, father of one of the second-graders.
He said his son told him the incident happened in a bathroom at the school, and that when the boys only pointed to the boy who was giggling, the teacher allegedly slapped all six of them on the forearm.
"When I picked my son up from school at 2:50, he was still complaining about his arm hurting," Brown said. "I'm just wondering, what's going on here? Why was this allowed to happen?"
He also isn't happy about how he claims the principal and school resource officer handled things after the boys reported they'd been slapped.
"They didn't take any pictures, they didn't send him to the nurse or anything like that," Brown said.
A Collier County Public School District spokesman emailed Fox 4 this statement regarding the incident:
"Berthony Charles Duc has been reassigned from Village Oaks Elementary to the MLK Jr. Administrative Center pending the results of an internal investigation."
Brown isn't satisfied with that response.
"They're doing an investigation, but if I slap someone, I'm going to jail," Brown said. "So why isn't that man in jail?"
Brown said he provided the school resource officer with a sworn statement that he would like to press charges against Duc.
