Teacher Jailed After Fistfight With Pupil's Mother
Parent Ends Up in Emergency Room
MACON, Ga. (Oct. 22) - A teacher-parent brawl in front of 19 fourth-
grade pupils sent a mother to the emergency room and the teacher to
jail.
Teacher Katrina Ann Rucker, 30, is charged with battery and cruelty
to children for allegedly beating a parent who tried to retrieve her
daughter's book bag.
According to police interviews, parent Lurella Amica went to Bruce-
Weir Elementary School Thursday morning to deliver a note to her 9-
year-old daughter.
At the classroom door, the girl told her mother that Rucker had
thrown her bag in the trash can, the report stated. Amica entered
the classroom and tried to get the book bag, but Rucker grabbed for
it and the two struggled, the report said.
After Amica wrestled the bag away, police say Rucker picked up a
chair and hit her in the back, knocking Amica to the floor. Rucker
then began punching Amica in the face and body.
During the fight, the girl was reportedly crying for her teacher to
stop hitting her mother and ran up to them. Rucker then allegedly
hit the child, pulled her hair and pushed her out of the way before
starting to strike the mother again.
Rucker dragged Amica by the hair outside the classroom, according to
the report.
"A school administrator and another teacher had to pull the teacher
off the mother," Macon police spokeswoman Melanie Hofmann said.
In Rucker's account of the story, she said Amica hit her hand during
the initial struggle, Hofmann said.
"The teacher said she was defending herself because she gets a shot
in that hand and it hurt," Hofmann said.
Amica was in stable condition in the emergency room of The Medical
Center of Central Georgia late Thursday night.
Rucker was placed on administrative leave.
Sylvia McGee, Bibb County's deputy superintendent, said school staff
called the parent or guardian of each child in the class. Social
workers counseled students, and only Amica's daughter left school
early.
Principal Karen Konke sent letters to parents about the incident.
"Let me assure you the school is safe and that our students have
been involved in appropriate instructional activities throughout the
day," Konke wrote.
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Update: TEACHER HAS BEEN FIRED!!
http://www.gwinnettdailyonline.com/G...0710A02F0A.asp
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