Piney Grove incident

An incident at Piney Grove Elementary School on Monday that prompted an investigation by Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools has resulted in the suspension of the school’s assistant principal, Bonnie Brown. A statement sent Tuesday evening to parents of children in one particular class at the school from WS/FCS Superintendent Beverly Emory detailed the situation in which an administrator at the school allegedly allowed a parent to spank a child in front of the child’s class. “Yesterday after school, someone reported to us that a parent of a child in your child’s class had been allowed to spank the child in front of the class. Your child may have told you about this,” said Emory in the correspondence. “We investigated today, and we found the report to be true.” She continued, “This troubles me deeply. It is up to families to decide how they discipline their children at home. Our policies prohibit our staff from using corporal punishment, and we have no policies that allow parents to come to school and use corporal punishment.” A less detailed letter was sent to parents of children in other classrooms at Piney Grove. Emory said the incident is being handled as a personnel issue and the school district is taking appropriate steps to make sure something like this does not happen again. During an interview with the Kernersville News on Tuesday afternoon, Emory placed no blame on either the parent of the child or the teacher for Monday’s incident. She did say an administrator at the school was involved in the decision to allow the spanking to occur. On Wednesday morning, Theo Helm, the school district’s director of marketing and communications, said Piney Grove Principal Susan Frye was not at the school on Monday and had been out on leave prior to the incident. While the incident is being investigated Deborah Grace has been named the school’s interim administrator as the school system continues to look into the matter.