Brainerd High student says private security guard punched him outside of school
Chattanooga TN January 7 2023
A student and his parent have filed a complaint against a school security guard after he says that the security officer assaulted him.
The boy’s mother said that she took him to Erlanger Children’s Hospital where medical records show he was diagnosed with a concussion following an incident at Brainerd High where he was punched.
The boy says that the security guard punched him over a disagreement about his hoodie and that he ended up in the back of a cop car for three hours.
“He jabbed off, push off, or something like that and hit me in my lip. After that is when everything took place,” says Jermaine Fleetwood.
17-year-old Fleetwood says it was just another day of going to school until he was met face to face with the third-party security guard.
“The man asked me could I take my hoodie off. I was outside. I told him I would when I got inside the building because it was cold outside,” says Fleetwood.
Fleetwood says the security guard proceeded to pull his hood down, and when Fleetwood pulled it back up over his head, that’s when things escalated, leading to him being punched in the face.
Numerous Hamilton County deputies responded to the school Thursday morning.
He says that’s when he was cuffed by the sheriff deputies and put in the back of a police car for three hours.
His mother, Tara Smith, says the school didn’t notify her any of this was happening.
“My daughter had to let me know that something was wrong with her brother. No one got in contact with me,” says Smith.
Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office Spokesman Matt Lea confirms the incident, telling us in an email that the incident happened “between a student and an individual from a third-party security company.”
HCS Spokesman Steve Doremus released this statement in an email early Thursday afternoon:
Hamilton County Schools is aware of an incident at Brainerd High School this morning involving a student and an individual not employed by the school system. This morning’s incident did not involve weapons or threats, and activities at Brainerd are continuing as scheduled. HCS is investigating the incident. No additional information is available at this time pending the completion of our investigation.
Right now, it’s not clear where the School Resource Officer (SRO) was at the time of the incident.
Smith says parents received an email from Brainerd High about security that said “elevated security measures will be in place so that we can be safe and focus on teaching and learning.”
But Smith says this is not the security she had in mind for her kids, especially at school.
“This shouldn’t happen. I send my kids to school for eight hours and then this is what takes place,” says Smith.
The third-party security is something new following the winter break.
