Video shows Tennessee Principal Helen Campbell and teacher Bonnie Marlar dragging student down hall

Sheriff’s officials in Rutherford County, Tennessee, have revealed surveillance footage of a youngster with special needs being carried through the corridor at Walter Hill Elementary School three years ago.

The Rutherford County School Board voted 4-2 in late May to fire principal Helen Campbell, citing unprofessional conduct and negligence of duty as reasons for her dismissal.

Campbell and instructor Bonnie Marlar are purportedly seen in the office with a disobedient pupil on surveillance video. As a result, the two take the boy by his feet down a nearly 600-foot hallway to a different room for seclusion.

“Mrs. Campbell was an educator forced to make a decision with a student who was in a situation where the behavioral history indicated that a problem was coming, unfortunately, instead of meeting with Mrs. Campbell and trying to learn why she relocated the student, what our Director of Schools did is look at a video, call police and have her arrested,” said Scott Kimberly, Campbell’s lawyer.

It’s worth noting that the Rutherford County Board of Education policy allows a youngster to be detained or transferred to another area if it’s essential for the student’s or others’ safety. Despite this, board director Bill Spurlock claims Campbell failed to disclose the student’s restraint and isolation, as well as attempting to tamper with or destroy security camera evidence from the school system.

Campbell is seen on video surveillance entering the library, where the video server is kept, according to the sheriff’s office.

“The reason this has what I would consider evidentiary inconsistencies is that the state managed to recover all the videos Mrs. Campbell managed to allegedly delete of this incident, stepping aside from the fact that Mrs. Campbell does not have the technological capacity to access the server or delete these things,” Kimberly said.

All of this has resulted in a job loss and criminal charges, including misdemeanor child abuse and evidence tampering.

“To understand how this criminal case started, Mrs. Campbell was arrested and charged with the misdemeanor charge of child abuse. We had a preliminary hearing through which the state offered evidence through their lead detective and in that hearing the state failed to introduce a single piece of evidence related to this child suffering any injury of any kind from this incident,” Kimberly said.

The original allegations were eventually withdrawn, but Campbell was later indicted on the same charges by a grand jury. She accepted a plea deal despite maintaining her innocence.

The plea also ensures that she will not have a criminal record for the rest of her life.

An administrative hearing before an administrative law judge is the next stage. Campbell has the right to appeal if she doesn’t like the judgment, according to her lawyer.

She has been placed on leave for the time being.