A lawsuit filed in Chicago alleges that a 9-year-old boy was viciously beaten with 2 belts by his fourth grade teacher’s friend. Corporal punishment in public schools ended in the 1980s.
According to NBC 5 Chicago, the incident occurred on Sept. 20, 2018 inside a bathroom at George W. Tilton Elementary School.
The lawsuit alleges that 9-year-old Jomaury Champ’s teacher Kristen Haynes (pictured right) and her childhood friend Juanita Tyler, 56, dragged Jomaury down a hallway and into a restroom.
Haynes left the boy with her friend and returned to her classroom, while Tyler whipped the boy with 2 belts.
“His screams could be heard in her classroom, according to classmates,” the complaint reads.
Jomaury was beaten “20-30 times on the back, legs and buttocks, breaking the skin and leaving abrasions and red marks on his left, right inner thigh and buttocks,” according to the lawsuit.
Jomaury was then escorted back to the classroom where he shouted for his mother. “I am your mama,” Tyler allegedly told him.
Haynes then allegedly told Jomaury if he didn’t behave, Tyler would “come back up at 1 p.m.”
An attorney for the family said Jomaury did not have “a significant history of behavioral problems.”
Haynes, 50, was arrested on Sept. 24 and charged with battery and endangering a minor. Tyler was arrested on Sept. 28 and charged with domestic battery and causing bodily harm, according to Chicago police.
Chicago Public Schools suspended Haynes while the investigation is ongoing.
“Every student deserves a safe learning environment and the district will not tolerate actions that place students in the way of harm,” the district said in a statement released Thursday.
