Midlands special ed teacher arrested after alleged assault on student
A teacher at Nursery Road Elementary School was arrested last week and charged with assaulting a student.
Special education teacher Sharon Sweatt, 49, faces a charge of third-degree assault and battery, according to an Oct. 30 booking report from the Lexington County Detention Center.
Bond for Sweatt was set at $1,000. The Lexington-Richland 5 school district said Sweatt had been placed on leave because of the allegations, but declined to comment further because of the ongoing investigation.
A sheriff’s deputy was notified that administrators believed Sweatt had struck a child at the school earlier in October. A teacher’s aide told the deputy she had witnessed Sweatt “pop” students “on the hands and buttocks” on numerous occasions when Sweatt wanted to discipline them.
The aide reported that on Oct. 15, the aide heard “a slapping sound and a student screaming” from Sweatt’s classroom while she was in the classroom next door. Prior to that, the same aide said she witnessed a student hitting, kicking and biting Sweatt during recess until Sweatt struck the student in the face.
Another aide who reported being in the classroom with Sweatt said she witnessed Sweatt grab a misbehaving student “by the belt loop of his pants” and “toss” him onto a carpeted area of the classroom.
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