ANSON COUNTY, N.C. — The Wadesboro Police Department is looking into an incident in Anson County where a school employee put his hands on a student. It happened Tuesday at Anson High School.
A video posted on social media shows a man putting his hands around the upper body and near the neck of a student.
The district is now saying Principal Chris Stinson and a school resource officer were trying to diffuse a situation between two students as school was letting out Tuesday, and one of the students attacked the other one.
The district said Stinson used "what appeared to be reasonable force" to separate the two students and was struck in the jaw in the process. Stinson then pulled the student who initiated the fight away from the other, according to the district.
The statement from the district says, in part, "Mr. Stinson appeared to be under control throughout the situation and is specifically authorized by law to use reasonable force to control behavior or to remove a person from the scene in situations when it is necessary to quell a disturbance threatening injury to others, for self-defense, for the protection of people or property, or to maintain order on educational property. School employees are expected to act to intervene in altercations between students and to act appropriately when doing so."
The district says that while Stinson did have his arm across the student's shoulders and under his chin, Stinson denies choking the student and the student did not complain of being choked during or after the incident.
"Mr. Stinson is a highly respected and valued school administrator who acted quickly to break up a fight and to prevent further injury to a student who had been attacked," the district said in the statement.
The Wadesboro Police Department is investigating.