Sharon Louise Benson was arrested last Tuesday after being accused of slapping a student in the face. According to the Sumter County public index, the Lemira Elementary School teacher struck the child twice in the face in an attempt to wake them up, as reported by WIS News 10.
According to the incident report, the kid fell asleep in another teacher’s classroom, was pulled down the corridor, and felt Benson lightly poke their chest several times. The victim reported they felt a slap to the side of the face, fell onto the floor, and banged their head.
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Sumter Police Department (SPD) officers visited Prisma Health Tuomey Hospital a few days after the event and had a conversation with the victim and their aunt in the emergency department. The aunt reportedly told SPD that she was not informed of the incident until two days after it happened.
Todd Rutherford, who is representing the victim’s family, stated, “This should never happen in South Carolina and this should never happen to anyone’s child in any school anywhere in the world. For a child to literally be sitting and be assaulted by a teacher so hard that they fall to the floor, it’s disturbing as a parent, it’s disturbing as a lawmaker, and it’s disturbing as a lawyer.”
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He added, “So one of the things we looked at was what was the school district going to do, they turned it over to law enforcement and law enforcement did make an arrest and that’s a start. But now we have to figure out how to heal this child.”
Police said they visited the school and spoke with the principal. They were able to view security footage that they claimed showed the student being pushed into a “office-type” chair from a classroom into the hallway.
According to the incident report, footage shows Benson leaving the classroom and tapping the victim in an attempt to wake them up. Benson then allegedly struck the student on the right side of the face two times, causing them to fall off the chair and onto the floor.
According to a statement from the Sumter School District, Benson resigned some days after being placed on administrative leave.
The statement read, “The conduct of this employee is not indicative of Sumter School District’s values and how we serve children. On January 7, she was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation, and she resigned on January 10.”
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