Caroline Lee, 60, was arrested at Darnell-Cookman School of the Medical Arts in Jacksonville, Florida, and charged with child abuse this Friday, WPTV reports. The arrest came just days after Lee was named “Teacher of the Year.”
From WPTV:
The victim stated in the report that when she arrived at her first-period class on Friday that her teacher said Lee wanted to talk with her.
The report said Lee brought the student back to her classroom and asked the student why she threatened her.
According to the report, the student said she never threatened Lee, but Lee then reached across the table and struck the student with the palm of her hand.
The report goes on to say that Lee called the victim expletives and then kept hitting her on the top of her head as her nose kept bleeding.
Police say the incident was sparked by an argument Lee had with the student on the school’s Instagram page over a comment that questioned if Lee was a teacher that used the N-word in class, to which Lee replied that she used it in the context of a discussion about the book “Of Mice and Men.” Police say Lee interpreted one of the comments in the discussion as a threat against her.
Watch a report on the story below, via News4JAX:
