A Wake County special education teacher is facing serious allegations of assaulting multiple students with disabilities. Scott Swartzfager, 47, has been charged with five counts of felony assault on an individual with a disability and another five counts of assault on a child under 12. Following his arrest yesterday, he was processed at Wake County Detention Center, as reported by WRAL.
Swartzfager, who taught at Carver Elementary School in Wendell, was investigated after Wake County Public Schools System alerted authorities to the alleged incidents on May 9. The accused is to quickly appear in Wake County Court for a scheduled hearing on Wednesday afternoon. CBS 17 revealed that a $150,000 secured bond was set for the teacher.
These charges do not mark the first such instance in Wake County schools. Lori Miller Holland, a teacher arrested last February for assaulting a child with a disability, was ultimately sentenced to 10 days in jail and other penalties earlier this year. Commenting on the pattern of such incidents, an unnamed source observed to ABC 11, "It's upsetting because he's they're just not getting their needs met and they're not safe."
The case against Swartzfager remains under active investigation, and as community concern rises, many point to a perceived lack of adequate funding or support for students with special needs in the district. The unnamed source lamented to ABC 11, saying, "I mean, even if you want to say, OK, they're going to school, at least I can look at it like babysitting, but you can't because you don't even know that they're safe when you send them." These incidents have sparked discussions regarding not only the safety of children with disabilities in schools but also the broader challenges facing special education and the recruitment and retention of qualified teachers within the system.
