CRESTLINE — Bonnie McKean said she was sad and angry after viewing a video of her son being dragged through the hallways of Crestline Elementary School on May 5.
As seen in the video, her 7-year-old autistic son, Corbin, was dragged face-first from the playground at Crestline Elementary School after trying to climb up a slide, superintendent Noreen Mullins confirmed in a report by WMFD.
A phone message was left at the school Thursday afternoon, and the Crawford County Prosecutor’s Office was unavailable for comment at the time of publication.
McKean said she was angry because one of the people dragging the child was a teacher’s aide, Heather Gregory, who had worked with her son since preschool.
“I was speechless. I wanted to hold him and cry. She knows him better than any other teacher in that school,” McKean said. “She knows he is prone to violent meltdowns, and she was one of the best at calming him down.”
According to WMFD, teacher Hannah Ruthe was also involved in the incident.
In the nearly five-minute security footage of the incident, a teacher, Ruthe and a teacher’s aide, Gregory are seen dragging the boy as he falls to his knees, carrying him horizontally, then face-down through the halls of the elementary school. Students and other staff are seen witnessing the incident.
Both were placed on administrative leave, according to a report at WMFD.
The following day, Mullins said she was asked by a teacher to review the video.
“That’s when I became aware of it,” Mullins told the local TV station.
After the Crawford County Prosecutor’s decided no charges would be filed, the video was released for public consumption.
“(Prosecutor) Matthew Crall called me and explained to me there is a gray-area between discipline and abuse in the law,” Mckean said. “Because there were no injuries in this incident there was not much they could do.”
McKean said the school’s principal, Melissa Watters, and superintendent Mullins apologized for the way her son was treated.
“They love Corbin,” McKean said. “He’s there all the time. They were crying the whole time. I don’t blame them.”
