US School Director Sentenced To Jail For Leading A Secret Student Fight Club

A US school director in Arkansas has been sentenced to 30 days in jail, 120 days of house arrest with electronic monitoring and nine years of probation after she was accused of being the "ringleader" of a makeshift child fight club. Dr Mary Tracy Morrison, 50, the owner and director of The Delta Institute for the Developing Brain and its Engage programme, was handed the sentence after she pleaded guilty to a felony count of permitting child abuse and four misdemeanour counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Arrested in April last year, Morrison, 50, was initially charged with 11 felony and 19 misdemeanour counts. She was caught on camera instructing 18 students to physically assault a 13-year-old classmate. According to the probable cause affidavit filed in the case, the boy sat in the circle for 30 minutes, and Morrison "berated the child the whole time as she watched many of the other students sitting around the circle punch, kick and choke the juvenile victim, sitting inside the circle."

After the alleged incident, Morrison was caught giving the juvenile a high five, displaying her pleasure with the student's actions. Witnessing one student hit the victim hard, Morrison was seen asking the boy, "if the victim had ever made fun of him." According to the affidavit, that same student then proceeded "to choke the victim".

Also Read | 'Unable To Bear Stress': NRI Wants To Return To India After 8 Years Abroad

She was arrested after a mother told the Craighead County Sheriff's Office that her teenage son reported being mentally and physically abused while he was at the school, as per a report in New York Post.

Three other school employees, Michael Bean, 38, Kristin Bell, 36, and Kathrine Lipscomb, 45, were also arrested in connection with the abuse.

Apart from the prison sentence, the judge has also barred Morrison from working professionally with children, ordered her to surrender her occupational therapy and related licenses, and ordered her to complete a mental health assessment and follow all recommended treatment.