An East Baton Rouge public school employee was arrested Monday, accused of attacking a 22-year-old, non-verbal high school student who has autism, according to an affidavit by an East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s deputy.
Two attacks, one in early March and another in February, were captured by the school’s surveillance cameras, the document says.
The employee, a paraprofessional at Belaire High School, was placed on administrative leave, an investigation was conducted, and the employee “resigned in lieu of termination,” school district spokesman Ben Lemoine said.
In February, the affidavit says, the student entered a hallway, then put his hand up defensively when he saw the employee, Willie Scott, who then struck the student twice, once with an open-handed slap to the head, then with a closed fist to the chest.
In early March, security video captured another attack in the school’s gym, deputies said. Scott appears to become upset with the student and runs toward him, pushing him against the wall and then onto the floor, the affidavit says.
Scott lets go of the student, who escapes to a corner of the gym and hides behind an easel, the documents say. Scott follows the student, picks up a plastic pole and stands over the student, holding the pipe above the student’s head.
“The victim is cowering in the corner,” the affidavit says. “Due to the victim hiding behind the easel, it is unclear if Scott struck the victim with the PVC pole.”
The Sheriff’s Office received a complaint against Scott on March 8.
During an interview with a detective on Monday, Scott admitted to striking the student in February in the school hallway because Scott was having a “bad day,” the affidavit says.
Scott told the detective that, in the incident in early March, he didn’t hit the student with the plastic pole, saying he picked it up so the student didn’t use it against him.
Scott was booked into East Baton Rouge prison on Monday on two counts of simple battery of persons with infirmities and one count of aggravated assault.
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