DeKalb art teacher arrested months after video shows him slamming 7-year-old against wall – WSB-TV Channel 2

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A Redan Elementary School teacher is under surveillance after exclusive video footage showed him slamming a 7-year-old boy against a wall.

The incident led the teacher to resign while under investigation.

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Channel 2's Tyisha Fernandes was at Redan Primary School, where the incident occurred in March. The arrest warrant for teacher Anthony O'Bryant was not filed until a month later. School administrators even let O'Bryant return to class until they saw the video.

Fernandes spoke to the boy's mother, Jasmine Clifton, who said she had just transferred her son to Redan three weeks before the incident. She said once she saw the video it made her sick.

“I was heartbroken. Like, I can't watch the video anymore,” Clifton said. “Like I can't see him again, know that he ended up like that and I wasn't there to at least get it up off the ground,” she said.

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When the incident occurred, O'Bryant initially claimed he was trying to stop Clifton's son from hitting another student. Clifton wasn't upset until she saw the video and spoke with O'Bryant, who apologized and said he got angry because he felt overwhelmed by the numbers of students.

“They range in age from 1 to 30, so basically they can't handle the number of kids they have and he was exasperated,” Clifton said.

A spokesperson for the school district commented on the matter. “The teacher has been placed on administrative leave pending the results of an internal investigation. While the investigation was ongoing, the teacher resigned,” the spokesperson said.

Police arrested O'Bryant and charged him with simple battery. He was released the next day.

Clifton said the charges weren't enough.

“A simple battery was too light a load,” Clifton said. “He’s a 7-year-old child. I feel like he should definitely be charged with a crime and should serve time.

Clifton said her son suffered a head injury following the incident and she was upset that school administrators let the teacher back in class the next day, without even watching the video.

She also said they did not tell the teacher that her son had been diagnosed with autism.

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