The mom of the 6-year-old Florida girl, who was paddled by her principal, had the tables turned on her after authorities reportedly questioned children in her care about abuse.
The family’s attorney, Brent Probinsky, told TMZ that the paddled little girl and 2 of her siblings, plus a cousin for whom the mom cares, were pulled from class Tuesday by officials with the Florida Department of Children and Families (FDCC) and questioned one by one.
The Paddled Girl’s Two Siblings and a Cousin Were Questioned Without the Mother’s Permission After Receiving a Tip Claiming Neglect at Home.
Probinsky explained to TMZ that the interrogations were done without the mother’s knowledge and that he only learned about it after the fact when the FDCC came to him seeking to talk to the mom.
The reason the kids were questioned? They were reportedly asked if they experienced abuse at home. Probinsky said that the children all answered “no.” The lawyer also said the FDCC wanted to question the mother as to why she did not intervene while witnessing her daughter being paddled at school.
RELATED: Shocking Video Shows Elementary School Principal Aggressively Paddling 6-Year-Old Student
Tomorrow on @CBSThisMorning we’ll report the backstory behind this beating of a Florida 1st grader beaten with a paddle by her principal as her mom watched & recorded. This girl, age 6, is 3 ft tall, weighs 40lbs. She was beaten 3 times for allegedly scratching a computer screen. pic.twitter.com/o9hrGfHPWy
— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) May 2, 2021
TMZ reports the investigators were acting following a tip, but the family’s attorney feels it’s an outrage for authorities to go after the mother of the victim instead of the person who was caught on camera doing the paddling.
As Probinsky previously stated, there are a number of reasons the mom didn’t step in. To begin with, she’s undocumented and was afraid of repercussions of that being discovered.
Additionally, there was a language barrier as the mother does not fluently speak English. She explained, in Spanish, that she had no idea what was about to happen because she had not understood the principal who allegedly beat her child before the paddling began.
As we reported, a larger investigation into the paddling incident is underway at the state level.
The two people who could be held criminally liable are Central Elementary School principal, Melissa Carter, and school clerk Cecilia Self, who were recorded by the mother as they paddled the 6-year-old.
According to CBS This Morning’s David Begnaud, the first-grader was beaten three times for “allegedly scratching a computer screen.”
This girl, age 6, is 3 ft tall, weighs 40lbs,” Begnaud explained.
The 6-year-old’s mother claimed it all started when she went to the school to pay a fine for the damage her daughter was accused of doing to a computer, WINK News reported.
A police report obtained by the outlet said the first-grader’s mother mentioned paddling with her and a deputy present, but because of a language barrier, she didn’t understand the details of their conversation.
According to the mother, after she arrived at the school she was taken to the principal’s office where it was just herself, the principal, and a clerk in attendance.
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The mom said that she felt that no one would believe her story about the paddling so she took out her phone and hit record. She explained that she felt she had “sacrificed my daughter, so all parents can realize what’s happening in this school.”
“The hatred with which she hit my daughter, I mean it was a hatred that, really I’ve never hit my daughter like she hit her,” the mother added in Spanish.
“I had never hit her,” the woman said as she reportedly cried.