11-year-old girl hit by hockey stick during gym class, lawyer says. Teacher convicted

A substitute teacher has been convicted of child abuse after a Michigan lawyer says an 11-year-old girl was struck by a hockey stick during her gym class.

Jon Marko, the attorney representing the family of the 11-year-old girl, said the Hope Academy student was “covered in her own blood” following the May 2022 incident involving Jacqueline Brown, according to the Detroit Metro Times.

Brown “was yelling and doing some cussing,” Cha’Kyra Thomas told WJBK. “The next thing I know I feel something hard on the side of my head.”

The girl received staples in her head, the Detroit Metro Times reported, and she still has “dizziness, blurred vision, lack of appetite, memory loss and emotional stress.”

Brown was originally charged with third-degree and fourth-degree child abuse, Wayne County court records show. She pleaded no contest to the fourth-degree charge and received two years probation.

As part of her probation terms, she is not allowed to work as an educator unless approved by the court.

“With everything going on in the world today, we unfortunately worry about the safety our children when we send them off to school,” Marko said in a statement to McClatchy News. “But in this case, the very people who were supposed to keep the children safe betrayed that trust. No parent should have to worry about a child being assaulted by the child’s own teacher when they send them off to school.”

Marko told The Detroit News the family plans to file a lawsuit against Hope Academy and the educational service that hired and trained the substitute.

“The family still hasn’t received an apology from either her or the school,” Marko told the news outlet.

Cha’Kyra said she had to transfer schools because of the trauma from the incident, according to WJBK.

This story was originally published February 24, 2023 at 12:32 PM with the headline "11-year-old girl hit by hockey stick during gym class, lawyer says. Teacher convicted."