The school year is just about over, but what happened at Moton Elementary School in Brooksville has one parent so upset she’s ready to pull her child out as soon as possible.
“I don’t see why anyone would want to harm a child, especially my daughter. She’s very sweet and loving," Vanessa Mauk-Doane said.
Mauk-Doane knows her daughter, Isabella, is hyper and difficult to handle sometimes.
But she said that’s no reason teachers should have treated the 6-year-old with Down Syndrome the way they allegedly did.
Other teachers at Moton reported seeing Isabella’s teacher and a teacher’s aide pull the child across a classroom by her hair in two different incidents last week.
“It makes me upset. I don’t know if I want to scream or cry," Mauk-Doane said.
Vanessa, who works in law enforcement, said the school never told her about the hair pulling when it happened last week. Instead, she heard about it when the Department of Children and Families came to her door.
She said the Hernando Sheriff’s office told her they had not filed charges against the teachers because Isabella is non-verbal and can’t tell them what happened. And she doesn't have any bruises.
“I’m just very frustrated with the whole situation and afraid nothing good is going to come out of it. That they are not going to be held accountable for what they did," Mauk-Doane said.
Vanessa said she was told the teachers involved are no longer in her daughter’s class.
Meanwhile, Isabella still seems happy and in the mood to play.
She also loves school, even after what allegedly happened.
The school district released a short statement saying the district and the sheriff’s office are conducting an investigation into this allegation
