MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis Police said a middle school student was facing charges after attacking a high school assistant principal.
Police said the student choked the assistant principal, and at one point the administrator lost consciousness.
Police said the 14-year-old boy was on school property after hours and refused to leave.
All the buses were gone when police said Raleigh Egypt High Assistant Principal David Barrett was attacked. Barrett said it was around 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 10, when he spotted several middle school students on campus and asked them to leave. The students refused and continued to ignore him and walk past him.
At one point Barrett said he grabbed a teen by the arm and told him to go to the office to call his parents. Once in the office there was some kind of altercation, and Barrett claimed the boy made threats to him while Barrett said he tried to call police.
According to the police report, all of this was going down while the family of the young suspect was reportedly banging on the door of the office, which was broken.
According to a police report, Barrett “advised that the suspect then pulled a cord from one of the computers and threatened to whip him with it then came around behind him, wrapped the cord around his neck and began to choke him.”
Barrett said at one point he lost consciousness, and once the door was finally kicked down, the suspect again “came from the side and hit him in the ear with a closed fist on the right side of the face.”
“It’s just something that you would never expect,” said Anthony Bobo, whose daughter attends the high school.
He said he was shocked and is calling for more security at the school after hours.
School board member Stephanie Love said this incident was a sign parents and the school to need to work together.
“Could this be my child? What are we doing to address the issue, and what are we doing to make sure these issues are addressed because I don’t want to see this happen again,” Love said.
Police said the teen was charged with aggravated assault and vandalism.
WREG reached out to the mother of the 14-year-old charged in this case. She initially agreed to tell her side of the story but later refused.
The school district released the statement: “On Thursday after school hours, an administrator at Raleigh Egypt High School was the victim of an assault incident involving two adults and a minor who does not attend the school. School property was also damaged during the incident. Thankfully, the employee is recovering from injuries.”
