Editors note: The video at top of article is a collection of segments of videos provided. The videos are available in full at the bottom of this article and are unedited.
Seven hours of video has been released showing a pre-school teacher’s interaction with a 2-year-old boy at St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church in Grovetown, authorities said.
St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church refused to comment on if the teacher has been reinstated after being placed on leave pending a review of the video.
The boy’s mother, Kasey Brooks, claimed she watched some of the video and saw teacher June Barrow abusing her nonverbal child, sparking her violent assault on the church worker Sept. 1. The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office arrested Brooks for battery, but the agency declined to charge the teacher after its review of the classroom video.
Monday’s release comes after a huge public demand to see the video that Brooks claimed made her so upset. The sheriff’s office hired a company to blur the faces of the children and staff.
In an statement after her arrest, Brooks claimed she was justified after the church showed her video during a meeting about her child’s behavior
“For 3 hours I watched … (his teacher) spank him several times, hit him in the head, slap him with a book, shove him to the ground, snatch him up by one arm and carry him across the room multiple times, slam him in his seat to make him eat lunch alone in time-out, pick him up by his ankles and hold him on his neck/head and grab his face so hard his cheeks were touching in his mouth as she was nose to nose with him amongst other things,” Brooks stated.
Brooks raised over $40,000 from the public for her legal fees and made national news with her account.
Meanwhile, the teacher’s attorney, Jack Long, appeared on a Sunday radio show and announced that Barrow has already returned to work at the church. He said the only reason she was on administrative leave with pay was because she didn’t want to expose the children to the “significant” visible injuries suffered in the attack by an “unhinged” parent.
“She is back at work now, and hopefully, not with the children of any parents that behave like Ms. Brooks,” Long said on WGAC’s Law Talk. “She is back at work, and hopefully she will be there for a long time. My understanding is she is very good with children and very good at her job.”
Long said he is preparing lawsuits against Brooks as well as those who defamed the teacher on social media.
Notes and time stamps below provided by Columbia County Sheriff’s Office
(Slider) 8:50 Kicks other children, small swat on rear
(Slider) 5:28 Reading book, knocks over books from shelf, gets under chair, smack with book on rear.
8:44 Kicks other child, controls his legs.
9:40 He unties her shoes, he kicks her several times, she pulls him to control his legs
(Slider) 9:25 exercise, disruptive, not participating.
(Slider) 5:20 Kicks at her.
(Slider) 6:50 Knocks over box of toys, leads him by the arm to timeout.
(Slider) 5:00 Timeout, put shoes on, hands on his face, hugs from him.
Greg Rickabaugh is the Jail Report Contributor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at greg.rickabaugh@theaugustapress.com.
