Parents are outraged by the scenes within recently released surveillance videos that show a Connecticut elementary school principal, Carmen Perez-Dickson, dragging a child through the hall on three separate occasions. To add to their frustration, she wasn’t fired.
Nakeya Hargrove, the mother of the a young girl in one of the videos, didn’t find out about the March 2012 incident until months later through someone who worked with the Department of Children and Families. She says her daughter was afraid to go to Jettie S. Tisdale Elementary School.
“After seeing the videos, she dragged my daughter like she was some kind of animal,” Hargrove said. “Who in their right mind let a principal go back to any school in Bridgeport and be a principal again?”
News 12 reports that Bridgeport schools’ superintendent held a news conference on February 21 to discuss the recently released videos. Chief Administrative Officer Sandra Kase stated that Perez-Dickson has been with the district for more than 30 years, but should have been fired over the incidents. However, the Board of Education voted to suspend her for six months without pay and ruled that she could work at another school as an administrator following her suspension.
“I still cringe when I see this,” said Kase. “Principals are supposed to be protectors of children, they’re not supposed to hurt children.”
Perez-Dickson maintains that she “acted within school policy by using reasonable force when necessary when handling student issues,” according an attorney’s statement release. There are also plans to investigate how the video was released to the media.
Read more of the developing story on News 12 and ABC 7.
BMWK–What are your thoughts on the incident in question? Unknowing of the actions that took place before the footage, could the principal have moved within her grounds?