Florida principal who paddled 6-year-old girl won’t face criminal charges, state attorney says

The elementary school principal seen on camera disciplining a 6-year-old student with a paddle in Florida will not face criminal charges after the case was looked into by a state attorney.

State Attorney Amira Fox said evidence indicates the young girl’s mother had asked for the child to be spanked by officials at Central Elementary School in Clewiston after she intentionally damaged a computer, a letter obtained by “CBS This Morning” says.

The letter contends the mother was informed in a phone call that she would have to come to the school to make such a request in person, and that she would need to be present for the disciplining.

Principal Melissa Carter and another staff member both claimed the mother “then arrived at the school and made that request,” the letter states.

“After the spanking, both staff members ask the child to apologize to her mother, and again explain the reason for the spanking and that it may occur again if she continues misbehaving,” Fox’s letter reads. “Both staff members appear to treat the child and her mother with respect throughout the process.”

Video of the paddling appeared to be secretly recorded by the child’s mother on April 13. The mother claimed to WINK-TV last month that there was a language barrier during the phone call with school officials, and that she recorded the paddling because, “Nobody would have believed me.”

The state attorney’s letter contends the phone call between the mother and the school “appears to have been conducted in Spanish.”

The mother allegedly told a school staff member over the phone that she was “afraid to discipline” her daughter “by spanking” at home because the girl threatened to call the Florida Department of Children and Families and the police, according to the letter.

The letter contends the mother told the school employee that her daughter was damaging items at their home as well.

An attorney for the family said in a statement to CNN that Fox “relied on a flawed legal analysis” in making her decision about the case, saying she “applied the wrong law.”

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