Autistic child charged with biting teacher

TIFTON — An eight-year-old student at Horizon Academy school bit his teacher Thursday morning and was charged with battery. According to a Tifton Police department incident report, teacher Tallulah Rogers told TPD officer Joseph Ezekiel that she was engaged in normal classroom activities in room 107 at the school when she walked by the student and he reached up and bit her on the top of her right arm. Rogers told police he clamped down on her arm and “caused trauma and broken skin.” She told Ezekiel she had been treated for a series of Hepatitis B shots and others tests from the incident.

Ezekiel wrote in his report, “I noticed a bite, a bruise on the complainant’s right arm where it had turned blue and green with swelling.” The officer took photographs of Rogers’ arm showing the bite mark.

According to the incident report, Rogers told Ezekiel that the eight-year-old is autistic and non-verbal.

Horizon Academy is “a member of the Georgia network for education and therapeutic support.” Howard Duvall, director of the special needs school, when asked about what had happened to the student, said he could not comment.

Also on Thursday morning, the TPD responded to a call at Matt Wilson school from principal Tonya Tift. She reported that an eleven-year-old student was on school grounds trying to sell a clear baggie containing a white substance, claiming it was crack cocaine. The baggie was seized and tested with a Sirchie cocaine ID swipe and the results were that the substance was inconsistent with cocaine.

The eleven-year-old was detained and transported the Tifton Police Department where juvenile authorities were called. The juvenile was charged with transaction with a non controlled substance represented to be a controlled substance.

Additionally, the eleven-year-old had a toy gun on his person that was turned over to Tift. The juvenile was then taken to Tift County jail to be transported to the Crisp RYDC until his detention hearing. The juvenile was read his rights with the parents present and they requested an attorney.

TPD officer Bryan Rhodes filed the incident report.

In a separate unrelated incident, Charles Tozair Shelton of Fitzgerald reported that he was the victim of an armed robbery that took place on Wednesday at 3119 South Central Avenue in the Chevron parking lot. According to an incident report filed by Tift County Sheriff’s Office deputy Lt. R. Brown, Shelton said that he had been robbed at gun point by two black males unknown to him. Tiesha Riley of Ocilla witnessed the robbery. Reported stolen from Shelton was $600 in cash, $4,000 in jewelry and a radio valued at $50.

In another separate incident, an anonymous complaint was called into the TCSO stating a vehicle was on fire at 1116 Fletcher Road. The vehicle was a 2001 gold Kia Optima that was registered to Wanda Denise Cooper of Miami. The case was turned over to the Tifton Fire Department.

To contact reporter Jana Cone, call 382-4321, ext. 208.

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