Charleston Police investigate claims against special education teacher

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – Charleston Police are investigating claims made against a special education teacher at Drayton Hall Elementary School who allegedly assaulted a student.

The Charleston Police Department has not confirmed whether the teacher is facing any criminal charges, but the Charleston County School District said the teacher was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.

The report is dated May 13, but witnesses said the events happened earlier this month.

Amanda Gillispie was a teaching assistant for the class and says she noticed from the beginning that something was “off” and that the way the teacher talked to her students was concerning.

“She would scream at kids every single day for just playing with toys. They would play with toys, and she would scream at them, ‘Don’t break my toys. I paid for them with my own money,’” Gillispie says. “Then it got to physical. She would hit the students if they chewed on one of the toys.”

Gillispie told police that on May 10 the students returned from a field trip and that when she was in the bathroom, she heard shouting from the classroom.

When she walked in, she says she witnessed the teacher grab the student by the back of the shirt and throw them to the ground. She says after the student was thrown to the ground, the teacher slapped the student, who has autism and is nonverbal, on the leg.

Gillispie also told police she asked the teacher if some of the other students should be removed from the classroom, but that the teacher said she “did not care what she did with the other kids.”

Another witness in the classroom reported what she saw leading up to this incident, the incident report states.

The witness told police the student bit the teacher on the hand and threw a toy at her. From there, the teacher threw the toy back at the student and grabbed them by the back of their shirt and threw them to the ground, the witness said.

Gillispie claims the teacher would also curse at the students and sit on her phone during school hours.

“She’d cuss at the students, sit in her chair half the day on the phone. The kids were just in fear, really. They were in fear, and when she was out, they were completely different kids” she says.

Gillispie claims she tried to talk about her concerns with the school many times about the teacher’s behavior.

She says May 3 was her last day working in that classroom and that she got moved to a different classroom at Drayton the following week.

After that, she says the principal told her on May 10 that she would be relocated to West Ashley Head Start and that she could come back and pick any position next school year, but that they had to keep the teacher in the class because she was certified in special education.

Gillispie credits the other teachers at the school for helping her during her time in the classroom.

“I feel like this behavior does not reflect solely on the school because all of the teachers there are amazing. When I have had such a hard time all year, all the teachers were so willing to, like, step in and help,” she says.

Gillispie says she feels like this is why teachers don’t speak up because this is what happens.

Kierra Tucker was also in the classroom but as one of the substitute teachers. She claimed the bathroom was unsanitary when she was there.

“When I went into the bathroom to change them, it was a disgusting mess, like there was poop and pee on the changing table, there was soiled diapers on the changing table,” Tucker says. “There was broken glass on the ground. It looked like, and I didn’t put my nose in it, but it looked like there was human feces all over the floor and like pee on to it.”

She claims that she found moldy bottles and cups on the counter and that the teacher said it was fine to use them.

“At one point she told us to just go rinse off the bottle and give them to them and just fill them up with water. And I made the comment, ‘Well, there is mold in them. We can’t do that,’ and she goes, ‘Just rinse them out. It’s fine. We only put water in them,’ and I am like, ‘Obviously not