Witnesses: Nurse yells profanity, racial slur at student
JONESBORO, Ga. — A Georgia mother is calling on her son's school to reopen an investigation into accusations a school nurse used profanity and a racial slur against her son in October.
According to witness statements from six children and three adults, school nurse Beverly Barnes approached 11-year-old Jason Ezzard and started yelling. Jason and another boy threw a bag of chips back and forth in the cafeteria of Mundy's Mill Middle School.
Written reports by the school's principal, Sharra Cunningham, said Barnes yelled expletives at the sixth-grade student and used a racial slur before another teacher intervened.
Jason's mother, Tormeka Ezzard, called the surveillance video "degrading. Very degrading. 'I'm going to (expletive) you up' — you're talking to an 11-year-old. 'I'm going to (expletive) lights out.' You're talking to an 11-year-old!"
Citing privacy concerns, Clayton County Public Schools will not release the surveillance video.
"She's abused my child physically, mentally, and verbally, and no one will help me," Ezzard said.
Ezzard held her breath while watching the video of the confrontation between the school nurse and her son.
"My heart, I swear, was going 100 miles per hour, and I had to remind myself to breathe," she said.
Ezzard is calling on the school to reopen the investigation and hold the nurse accountable.
After an investigation, Barnes was suspended for two days without pay, but Ezzard said that's not enough.
"If it would've been the other way around, Jason would have been locked up, on the spot," she said. "I would have been going to pick my child up at the Clayton County Juvenile Detention Center. What makes her any different from Jason?"
The school said the punishment was appropriate because Barnes did not have any previous complaints against her.
"This happened to a student at your school that you say you're here to protect at all costs, and you didn't," Ezzard said.
Parents and witnesses said this was more than a verbal altercation.