TIFTON, Ga. (WALB) – WALB has learned that a paraprofessional at Northeast Middle School in Tift County was recently sent to jail after law enforcement told the school system that warrants were pending after, “inappropriate treatment” of a student.

WALB is working to determine if this arrest is related to the incident that occurred at the same middle school where the paraprofessional is employed.

On Monday, Nov. 11, WALB spoke with the student’s mother about what she said the school did and failed to tell her about the incident involving her autistic, non-verbal child.

“The principal contacted me and said they had to inform me of an incident during the transition but she was seen by the nurse and is fine. I was informed by the police about what happened. It’s still not quite clear. It’s like a gray area. No one has fully explained to me exactly what happened to her, so I still don’t know what happened to my baby.”

This incident of “inappropriate treatment” described by the school was the second time last week that parents told WALB they had not received transparency from the district about an incident at the school. You may recall that three students at 8th Street Middle School in Tifton were detained on Tuesday after a gun was brought to the school on Monday.

The parents told WALB off camera that they learned about the incident on Facebook.

We asked Tift County schools if they plan to change their parent notification protocols. They told us:

“As a school system, we are always evolving our communication processes. No two situations are the same and our communication is not always scaled to the whole school. As in this case, I communicated with the parent of the student involved and then with the parents of other students in the class regarding personnel changes. An individual parent who has a problem can contact the school administrator at any time. In addition, parents should always ensure that we have current phone numbers and email addresses in our student information system.”

WALB asked the school to confirm the names of the two people placed on administrative leave as a result of the incident, and they said they could not. We have also contacted the Tifton Police Department to confirm the paraprofessional charges and if they are related to the incident at the school.

We’ll let you know when we know more.

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