Copyright Charleston Post and Courier
COLUMBIA — A special education teacher in Lexington County was arrested after two teacher’s aides told police that she was hitting students, according to a Lexington County Sheriff’s Department incident report. Sharon Renee Sweatt, 49, was charged with third degree assault and booked into the Lexington County Detention Center Oct. 30. A magistrate judge set a $1,000 personal recognizance bond the next day, according to court records. The Nursery Road Elementary School teacher was placed on administrative leave, according to a spokeswoman from the Lexington-Richland Five school district. The district said it was cooperating with the police’s investigation but would not comment further. According to the police report, one teacher’s aide told a sheriff’s deputy on Oct. 17 that she had seen Sweatt “pop” students on the hand and buttocks as discipline multiple times over the preceding weeks — a slap or spanking that was usually hard enough for the aide to hear it from across the classroom. The aide reportedly said that on the morning of Oct. 15, she’d been able to hear “what sounded like a slapping sound and a student screaming” from the next classroom over. Weeks before, she had seen Sweatt “pop” a student in the face during recess to stop the child from hitting, kicking and biting her. A different aide also reportedly told the deputy that she had seen Sweatt “smacking” students on the hand and buttocks in the preceding weeks as a form of discipline, to stop them from climbing on classroom furniture. She described the Oct. 15 incident as Sweatt grabbing a student who was hitting and scratching her by his belt loops and tossing him back onto a carpeted area of the classroom. That student’s mother told police that she wanted to press charges, the report said. An affidavit attached to the arrest warrant for Sweatt dates the alleged assaults as happening between Sept. 1 and Oct. 17. Nursery Road Elementary serves about 466 students off Bush River Road, in the Walden neighborhood.
