The principal at the N.J. school where a kindergartner was barricaded behind a gym mat has been replaced
In letters to families with children at Wedgwood Elementary, Superintendent Eric Hibbs said a district administrator would be the principal for the remainder of the 2022-23 school year.
A South Jersey school district has made leadership changes at an elementary school where a kindergartner was captured on video screaming and crying while barricaded by his teacher behind a gym mat.
In letters to families with children at Wedgwood Elementary, Washington Township School Superintendent Eric Hibbs initially announced that a retired principal from another school in the Gloucester County district would serve as acting leader.
» READ MORE: After a N.J. kindergartner was filmed barricaded behind a gym mat, his mother wants an investigation
In another letter on May 26, Hibbs said Kayla Berry, the district’s world language, ESL and family and consumer science supervisor, would be the principal for the remainder of the 2022-23 school year. The last day for students is June 12. He gave no indication who would serve beyond that.
There was no mention of Charles Zimmerman, who was principal at Wedgwood when the March gym mat incident was captured on video. It was unclear whether he was placed on administrative leave or reassigned.
Hibbs and Zimmerman did not respond to messages seeking comment.
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Allison Welsh, whose son, Levi, was heard on the video that went viral after she posted it on social media last month, said she was pleased with the leadership changes. Berry, who began her career in the district as a student teacher and previously taught German and world languages, has been communicating regularly with parents, she said.
Welsh demanded an investigation after receiving the video with Levi, 6, pleading, “I can’t breathe. I can’t leave. Let me out,” from within a folded gym mat, acting as a barricade. The video was taken by an aide in his special-education class.
It appeared that the teacher had been using the method known as seclusion, a form of involuntary confinement, with Levi and other children.
Under a 2018 state law on restraint and seclusion, tactics such as confining students alone in a closed room can be used only with students with disabilities who present an immediate danger to themselves or others.
Welsh said her son has trouble self-regulating, cries easily, and has difficulty calming himself down when he becomes agitated. She said Levi was probably crying because he was hungry or tired.
That method also was not a part of his Individual Education Plan, or IEP, and she would never have approved it. She had talked with the parents of other special-needs children in the class and heard other troubling allegations of things that had occurred in the classroom.
The aide said she recorded the incident after she reported her concerns to supervisors and was ignored. The aide has left the district.
Hibbs has declined comment, citing an active investigation. Welsh said she reported what happened as child abuse to the state Division of Child Protection and Permanency.