Teacher corroborates allegation Palmetto principal flipped over autistic boy’s chair
A substitute teacher working at Palmetto Elementary School has corroborated another staffer’s account of the school’s principal flipping over the chair an autistic boy was sitting on, causing him to fall onto the floor.
Katherine Cammarata was not interviewed by the Palmetto Police Department before officers closed their investigation and determined that the allegation of child abuse was unfounded. The detective assigned to the case was told that Cammarata
had resigned from the school, according to Chief of Police Scott Tyler.
But Cammarata says she has continued to substitute teach at Palmetto Elementary and was upset to read reports that she had resigned and that police had determined no abuse occurred.
“I don’t understand that. It doesn’t make sense to me,” Cammarata told the Bradenton Herald on Thursday. “I was in that classroom.”
Principal Michelle Mealor has been on paid administrative leave since the allegation was reported to the Florida Department of Children and Families child abuse hotline on Nov. 4.
In her absence, the director of district support, Frank Pistella, is helping Assistant Principal Melissa Porco with administrative duties at Palmetto Elementary, according to the Manatee County School District.
The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office Child Protection Section, which investigates all child welfare cases in Manatee County for DCF, has also closed it case, finding that the allegation of abuse was unfounded, according to sheriff’s office spokesman Randy Warren.
Teacher told investigation continues
But Cammarata said the child protection investigator assigned to the case told her otherwise after a story about the case appeared in the Bradenton Herald. The investigator told her there was still more investigating to be done when Cammarata questioned the unfounded finding, she said.
The Palmetto police detective assigned to the case now also intends to contact Cammarata, according to Tyler, after she told the Bradenton Herald that she is still working at the school as a substitute.
Cammarata said she never resigned, but merely left a note for Mealor requesting that she be reassigned to another class because of an on-going issue with the behavior technician in the class.
Cammarata says others involved in the incident were part of a meeting at the school on Wednesday, but she was not invited and only learned about it after the fact. She said she was told that others were instructed to not discuss the incident with anyone.
Substitute teacher describes alleged abuse
On Nov. 1, Cammarata was substitute teaching the emotional or behavioral disability class at Palmetto Elementary. She had been doing so since the second week of this school year, since the assigned teacher walked out and quit during the first week, Cammarata told the Herald.
That afternoon, an autistic boy in the classroom with mental and physical disabilities became extremely upset, which was not an unusual occurrence for any of the students in the special education classroom, Cammarata explained. But when the boy flipped over a desk and chairs, the teacher aide working with her called over a radio for administrators to come assist them.
Mealor arrived with the school’s behavior specialist and another staffer, according to Cammarata. But as Mealor spoke to the boy, he got more more upset.
“He started kicking her shoe, so she started kicking his shoe back,” Cammarata said.
Mealor then tried to get the boy to sit down at his desk, which he did, Cammarata said, but then he became upset again and flipped over his desk.
“He said something to her like, ‘You’re fat and ugly,’ and she replied, ‘Have you looked in the mirror lately?’” Cammarata said.
The two continued to go back and forth as Mealor tried to get him to pick up his desk, and the boy told her he physically couldn’t. Cammarata recalled Mealor appearing to get annoyed and approaching the boy from behind.
“All of sudden, she took her foot, put it under the chair and just flipped it over to the front,” she said.
The boy curled up in a fetal position sobbing. She said it appeared his head had hit a metal media cabinet that was directly in front of his desk but that it was possible his head hit the toppled over desk.
The boy’s mother was called and told he was being suspended but since she couldn’t pick him up, his grandmother went to the school instead, the substitute teacher said.
Principal was laughing, teacher says
As they all waited for her to arrive, Mealor and the other two staffers who had come to assist her, whispered among themselves. They were laughing but she couldn’t hear what they were saying.
“It wasn’t very funny,” Cammarata said.
Mealor and the other two staffers later told police they were laughing at something unrelated.
Cammarata’s account of what happened mirrors the aide’s account to police other than one detail, that Mealor also had her hands on the chair. Cammarata says it is possible that Mealor had her hands on the chair but that she definitely flipped it over, toppling the boy over.
The reports about Mealor came as a shock to parents at the school, many taking to social media to express their outrage that they had been left in the dark by the school and the district.
A message went out to families on Wednesday evening, after the Bradenton Herald began to inquire about the principal. It said Mealor was placed on administrative leave and removed from campus after Child Protective Services received a complaint on Nov. 4
Porco, the assistant principal, sent the message to families, according to district spokesman Mike Barber.
“Because of legal guidelines pertaining to such investigations, I am unable to provide you with any further details at this time,” the message read. “Once the investigations are complete and state guidelines permit, all permissible information pertaining to these inquiries will be made public.”
“I thank you for your support and encouragement for our students as we look to finish the next two weeks on a strong note before the Winter Break. Have a good evening,” it concluded.
Herald reporter Giuseppe Sabella contributed to this report.
This story was originally published December 5, 2019 at 5:56 PM.
