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BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A suspended Baton Rouge high school principal says he's fighting to keep his job after being videotaped allegedly hitting a student's buttocks with a stick to break up a fight.
Calvin Nicholas, who was suspended the day after the fight, tells The Advocate (http://bit.ly/1OR1x6r ) that he got a letter Sept. 26 saying he was being fired, and has asked for an administrative hearing to determine whether that's justified.
East Baton Rouge Parish Superintendent Warren Drake said he is taking further disciplinary action against Nicholas but wouldn't elaborate.
Nicholas said that talking to district officials about the fight has made it clear they view corporal punishment as never justified and don't believe his explanation.
"They think I maliciously hit the child to hurt him and not to break up a fight," Nicholas said.
The school system's student handbook forbids corporal punishment, but allows "reasonable use of physical force and restraint may be necessary to stop a disturbance threatening physical injury to others." That's exactly what happened, Nicholas said.
He said he had tried to break up the fight outside Scotlandville High School on Aug. 31 by blowing his whistle and shouting, and stepped in because one student was in danger of serious injury. He was fired the day after the fight, after the brief, blurry video surfaced.
It shows a fight outdoors between at least two male students, and possibly more. After a few seconds, a man dressed in black strikes a stick across one boy's rear, then pulls him aside.
The fight started after the security officer assigned to Scotlandville High had left for the day.
Tiffany Quiett took over Tuesday as Scotlandville High School's interim principal. She's its third principal since l Howard Davis became ill earlier this year.
The head of a local teachers union, Carnell Washington, had questioned the suspension and said last week that firing and replacing Nicholas sends the wrong message to educators.
"There are facts I don't know," Washington said. "Be that as it may, I still think it's a mistake to terminate anyone who's caught in this kind of situation. It happens all the time. His just happened to make the news."
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Information from: The Advocate, http://theadvocate.com
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