Disciplinary acts in D.C. public school classrooms allegedly turned into acts of abuse more than 200 times during the 2008-2009 school year, according to new information obtained by the Washington Post.
The reported abuse figures were in the same ball park in the 2005-2006 academic year.
The Post got the numbers through a Freedom of Information Act request. Hawk One, the company that used to provide security for D.C. Public Schools, tallied the abuse allegations.
Teachers were accused of abusing students a total of 220 times last year. Those accusations included incidents of teachers allegedly choking, pushing, slapping, kicking or verbally berating kids.
One teacher was accused of warning a female student that she would be a "whore" if she didn't do her homework, according to the Post. Another startling accusation documented a student crying, after apparently being struck by a teacher who was overhead saying, "Now you know how it feels to hit someone."
It's not clear how many, if any, of those reported incidents led to criminal charges or disciplinary action against the accused teachers, but schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee was recently quoted as saying a number of teachers fired last year had physically or sexually abused students.
There were 89 reports of alleged teacher-on-student abuse in the 2006-2007 school year and 96 reports in 2007-2008.
