Audio clip
Shaun Shepherd
An interim Brainerd High assistant principal was the victim of a student assault during a confrontation Wednesday, while Brainerd assistant principal Joshuah Barber continues to face possible termination after allegedly breaking up a student fight with pepper spray.
During an early afternoon class, a cursing and disruptive male student at Brainerd attempted to get one of his male classmates to fight him, authorities said. During the confrontation, the instigating student pushed interim assistant principal LaMonte Vaughn, who had been called to control the situation.
“The student’s aggression was turned toward (Mr. Vaughn),” said Lt. Shaun Shepherd, who heads the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department’s school resource officers program. “He was pushed or shoved; it wasn’t like a punch. There were no injuries.”
The student was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and simple assault, according to sheriff’s department spokeswoman Janice Atkinson.
James Colbert, who serves as operations director over Brainerd, said the two situations at the school were very different.
Mr. Barber is facing termination for what schools Superintendent Jim Scales has called abusive behavior toward students.
Mr. Colbert said that as an administrator you are “trying to keep kids from getting hurt.”
A former high school principal, Mr. Colbert said he thinks the public has a false perception that central office administrators are trying to keep principals from getting involved in student confrontations.
“You don’t sit there and watch a fight, you need to get involved and try to break it up,” he said. “We certainly don’t want our administrators to be shy in getting involved in physical confrontations.”
Assault against a teacher, administrator or other school system employee is a zero-tolerance offense, so the juvenile was kicked out of Brainerd, said Danielle Clark, Hamilton County Schools spokeswoman. He will be suspended for a year, she said, but he has the opportunity for appeal.
BARBER CASE
Joshuah Barber, an assistant principal at Brainerd High, was involved in breaking up a fight at the school recently and now faces termination. The Hamilton County Board of Education recently voted that the list of charges brought against Mr. Barber, if true, warrant his being fired. In a letter dated Dec. 6, 2007, Schools Superintendent Jim Scales charged Mr. Barber with insubordination and unprofessional conduct, saying he had lied to administrators and abused students. Mr. Barber has until the end of the month to request an appeal hearing.
Kelli Gauthier covers K-12 education in Hamilton County for the Times Free Press. She started at the paper as an intern in 2006, crisscrossing the region writing feature stories from Pikeville, Tenn., to Lafayette, Ga. She also covered crime and courts before taking over the education beat in 2007. A native of Frederick, Md., Kelli came south to attend Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in print journalism. Before newspapers, ...
