A Richmond, Virginia, school superintendent says he is “absolutely horrified” and is doing “everything in his power” to investigate after a video surfaced showing a school employee allegedly biting an autistic child in her care.
The video began circulating on the internet early on April 15, according to WRIC. It’s unclear who recorded it.
The nearly minute-long video shows a woman walking outside Fairfield Court Elementary, holding the hands of two little girls. The woman then leans over one of the children, opens her mouth, and appears to bite the child’s hand.
“This is absolutely horrendous! How many other children has she done this to?” wrote @AnwuliHenrietta on X.
At one point in the video, you can hear the child crying.
“That child needs to be checked for rabies. That woman is some feral animal,” @moraltreason added.
The employee has not been identified.
“She needs to be sued, along with a beat down,” @MFHopkins1 wrote on X.
“No jail? Privileges. Privileges. Privileges. Privileges. Pathetic,” @EverbodyD59983 added.
“While I cannot comment on personnel actions, I want to assure our families and the public that I simply will not tolerate any such behavior at RPS, and I’ve taken every necessary step accordingly,” Superintendent Jason Kamras wrote in a statement on social media.
The mother of the child who was allegedly bitten said in a Facebook Live video that her child has autism and is nonverbal, according to WTVR.
“My daughter is the type of person that you can do something to her, and she’ll be right back playing like nothing ever happened. That is scary,” she said.
WTVR reports that the incident happened on April 13 and the mother — who didn’t learn of the biting until the video began circulating — said she met with school officials who said the employee is no longer with Fairfield Court Elementary.
Kamras said the school district is investigating the video but has not indicated potential consequences for the employee.
“Our motto is to ‘teach, lead, and serve with love, ‘ and we failed in the most extreme sense to live up to that with this incident,” Kamras said in a statement. “I apologize to the student, their family, and the entire RPS community for this breach of trust and am determined to do everything in my power to ensure that it never happens again.”