Paddling investigation by DHS continues

As a Community High School vice principal says the sheriff's investigation found no child abuse from corporal punishment administered by him, a state spokesman reports the Department of Children's Services is "still investigating" the paddling.

"We're aware of the situation," DCS spokesman Rob Johnson said Wednesday afternoon. "We are investigating, our Special Investigative Unit is. Our investigations can stretch a couple of weeks. Our SIU is precisely for this kind of situation."

Nevertheless, Keith Williams, an assistant principal at the high school in Unionville, has provided School Superintendent Ed Gray with a written statement that the Bedford County Sheriff's Department has exonerated him.

"They found no basis for the pressing of criminal charges against me regarding a spanking administered Oct. 19," Williams told Gray in an e-mail sent after school yesterday.

During Oct. 26-28, TV, Internet and newspaper reports quoted Freddy and Tracy Manus of Unionville and their son, Samuel, 14, as saying the eighth grader was paddled Oct. 19. The corporal punishment was for an alleged infraction of school bus behavior rules on Oct. 18. Samuel told his parents on Oct. 23. The next day, Freddy Manus took his son to the superintendent who advised their alternatives included going to the sheriff, which is what they did next. That was 18 days ago now.

The time-frame is of interest because state law says no arrest warrant shall be issued for a teacher or principal without an investigation reported by "appropriate law enforcement officials" and "independent medical verification of injury" presented to a judge or magistrate "within 15 days ... of notification."

About 10 days after Manus and his son went from Gray's office to the sheriff's department, Williams was informed by a sheriff's officer that "law enforcement officers presented a report of their investigation to the district attorney's office and to a judge," the vice principal told Gray.

Prosecutors and the judge "found no basis for ... charges," Williams said.

The Manus family accused Williams.

"This man is a faith-based Christian guy," County Commissioner Roger Brothers said Wednesday. "Folks made accusations. If he's cleared, it should be reported."

Community High School Principal Robert Ralston yesterday confirmed information from Brothers and others that Williams has said the sheriff's investigation found no child abuse as stated in the diagnosis of Samuel Manus by Dr. Corbi Milligan of Smyrna.

"That's what the police released to him," Ralston said. "I don't know if they'll take any other route. They have made a statement to Mr. Williams."

Calls to Williams and requests through Ralston and Gray asking him to confirm the information have resulted in no direct contact with the vice principal, although on Friday last week he told the Shelbyville Times-Gazette that the Manus' allegations "were totally inconsistent in proximity, time, and manner of a spanking administered Oct. 19 ... [and] ... the true source of the injury will be determined and revealed in time."

Williams' statement last Friday was in response to information he received one week ago from the sheriff's department, Williams wrote to Gray yesterday.

Another time factor was revealed yesterday.

The Smyrna doctor who diagnosed Samuel Manus as a victim of child abuse complied with state law that requires people suspecting abuse to report it to the Department of Children's Services. Failure to do so can result in a fine of $50 to $2,500.

However, it took Milligan from the afternoon of Oct. 24 until yesterday at about 3:20 p.m. to report her findings to the DCS on a toll-free number established for such reports. Her first three calls to DCS were answered by a machine that put her on hold, thanked her for calling and asked her to be patient.

"I sat here and worked on patient charts while on hold with the speaker phone," Milligan said of a five-minute wait on Wednesday, adding she wasn't complaining because she knows state officials are busy.

DCS spokesman Johnson concurred, "Sometimes the lines are busy and the waits are long, but we do encourage people to call."

The doctor stands by her diagnosis.

"Samuel's injuries were unfortunate and excessive," she said Wednesday morning. "I'd hope that they've been an eye-opener to parents and administrators"" about corporal punishment.

The boy suffered "a knot and bruise on [his] lower spine [and] swelling due to excessive force ... punishment with a wooden paddle," Milligan wrote in her physician notes.

Told of Commissioners Brothers' and Sewell Griffy's desire for a report to exonerate Williams since they'd been told the sheriff's investigation found no abuse, the boy's father replied, "I don't see how it's not child abuse.

"My doctor's to send a letter to Children's Services," Freddy Manus said, adding he'd be calling his lawyer again.

Manus' attorney, Cara Gruszecki Smalley of Norton Law Firm, was meeting with clients when sought at her office yesterday and no return call was received by this morning at presstime.

Meanwhile, Samuel Manus "has not been in any trouble" since his Oct. 19 paddling, according to his father.

Detective Lt. Chris Brown was named by the superintendent and the high school principal in Unionville as the officer who Williams quoted as reportedly advising no abuse was found. An official at the sheriff's office said Brown had been off duty this week.

Sheriff Clay Parker said Brown will give his findings to the district attorney's office which would present the information to a judge.

That's in accordance with state law provisions mandating a hearing within 15 days if a warrant is to be issued.

Presentation of an investigator's report, or not making a presentation to a judge, "is a decision that rests with the DA's office," Parker said. "They decide if they can prosecute. We become a witness after presentment of the case."

The sheriff expressed confidence that Brown had conferred with DCS.

Assistant District Attorney Richard Cawley referred questions to Acting District Attorney Eddie Barnard in Lewisburg. He's leading the office since the elected district attorney in the 17th Judicial District, Mike McCown, continues to recover from a cerebral hemorrhage. Calls to Barnard resulted in no contact.

Some lack of public information due, in part, to an inability to comment has been frustrating for Williams, the man accused and yet not charged either.

"There are confidentiality laws we must follow," the DCS spokesman said.

It was a frustration expressed by Thomas Intermediate School Principal Karen Scoggins who said what she could about an incident at her school recently.

Still, Williams has complained that "false allegations have fueled outside political groups who know nothing of who we are or the values that we work to uphold."

Tom Johnson of Nashville will represent Tennesseans For Nonviolent Discipline at the Nov. 17 meeting of the Bedford County Board of Education. Peggy Dean of Waxhaw, N.C., was denied a place on the agenda by board Chairman Barry D. Cooper who told Dean, a member of Parents and Teachers Against Violence in Schools, that he and Gray decided only one presentation will be heard on the same subject.