GREENUP COUNTY, KY-- Angel Nelson and her family just moved to Wurtland October 1st. Her son Alan has autism and other disabilities.
"He's trying to adapt, make friends," she said.
Angel got a call from Wurtland Elementary October 24th that her son had been involved in an incident. "He had an outburst and they were trying to remove him from the classroom but she restrained him the wrong way, and it was 100% preventable," she said.
Surveillance video subpoenaed by the family's lawyer shows a teacher dragging the 9-year-old up and down the hallway by his wrists.
"I was in shock and I was very traumatized, for this to happen in front of all of his classmates, it's just something no mother wants to hear," Nelson said.
Angel says her son told her the teacher also roughly threw him into a chair in a classroom. That moment was not recorded. Angel says because that camera was turned away facing a corner.
"What else has she (the teacher) done that we don't know about?" Nelson wondered.
The family says the woman in the video was in charge of the special needs program at the school.
"This was the same lady that looked us straight in the eye and said 'listen, your son is safe with me. I've got several years of experience. He's safe,'" Alan's stepfather Calep Nelson said.
Angel said her son has been having nightmares. "It breaks my heart for him, because he does try so hard to fit in," she said.
The superintendent tells WSAZ the woman in the video no longer teaches at the school.
"I did not want my son to go back while she was still working there," Angel said.
Alan's stepfather says losing her job is not enough: "She did abuse a child. And I think anybody that does that to a child should go to jail."
"I never want this to happen to another child. Ever," Angel said.
The teacher is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday. She is expected to be charged with fourth-degree assault.
