Search warrants: Ex-Durham educators accused in alleged abuse of elementary student
Newly released search warrants reveal a 6-year-old student with autism at a Durham elementary school may have been abused by her teacher.
Durham police executed two search warrants at Durham Public Schools’ Cleveland Street headquarters Jan. 15, requesting personnel information for a teacher and a teaching assistant at Eno Valley Elementary School, records show. The News & Observer is not naming the accused women because they have not been charged with a crime as of Tuesday afternoon, according to court records.
Police were investigating potential crimes of failure to report child abuse, assault on an individual with a disability and child abuse, according to the search warrants.
It’s not clear who contacted law enforcement, but search warrants tie the investigation to a photo anonymously slipped under the door of Principal Tounya Wright on Nov. 22, 2024. That photo allegedly depicted the student tied to a chair with jump rope, but Wright reportedly told police she wouldn’t provide the photograph “without an order from the court,” according to a search warrant.
A substitute teacher who worked in the girl’s classroom told investigators she’d seen the teacher tie the student up “because she was frustrated with her humming and interrupting other students” on at least two occasions, a search warrant states.
The teaching assistant named in the search warrants allegedly witnessed these events and did not report the behavior or stop the teacher from tying the student up.
The girl’s mother told police she came home “with unexplained bruises from school,” but when she asked her daughter’s teacher about the injuries, she said she was “‘falling’ at school,” according to the search warrant.
“[The mother] observed bruising on [her daughter’s] stomach and hips,” the search warrant states. “[The girl] recently came home with a busted lip that required a visit to the pediatrician’s office.”
The teacher couldn’t explain the injuries, according to the search warrant.
Placed on leave, then resigned
The teacher and teaching assistant were placed on administrative leave after Wright received the photograph, search warrants state. However, both women subsequently resigned, according to the search warrants.
A LinkedIn profile appearing to belong to the teaching assistant showed she left her role in December and had worked in that role since August 2021.
The Eno Valley Elementary School website still listed both women as employees as of Tuesday afternoon.
The investigation marks at least the second allegation of abuse within Durham Public Schools in the past week.
Lakita Rochelle Wilson, a former Durham Public Schools employee, was arrested Friday after allegedly abusing an 8-year-old disabled student in October, WRAL reported Monday. Wilson worked as an afterschool group leader in Community Education at Pearsontown Elementary School, the outlet said.
Spokespeople for Durham Public Schools and the Durham Police Department were working to reply to The N&O’s information requests as of Tuesday afternoon. Wright and the student’s mother could not be reached for comment.
Under North Carolina law, anyone who suspects the abuse, neglect or maltreatment of a juvenile is required to make a report to the local department of social services. Those who do not could be found guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.
