A former teacher at Hunter Elementary School in Greensboro is facing six misdemeanor counts of assault on a child under age 12 after police say she repeatedly struck six young students with a ruler inside an adaptive classroom. Likisha Carter, 55, a Greensboro resident, is accused of hitting the children, who ranged in age from 5 to 8, on their hands, arms, legs and bottoms, according to police.
The Greensboro Police Department said the allegations stem from an adaptive classroom at Hunter Elementary School, with the reported conduct occurring in September, as reported by the Charlotte Observer. Investigators reported that the children did not suffer injuries from the alleged strikes. Police issued a news release on the case on Nov. 2.
According to ABC45, online court records show Carter was charged with six counts of assault on a child under 12, with a warrant indicating the misdemeanor charges involve six different children at the school on Merritt Drive. The station reported that court records show Carter was arrested Nov. 2 and released on a $5,000 unsecured bond — a detail that conflicts with the Charlotte Observer's reporting, which lists her arrest date as Oct. 29. ABC45's account separately notes that an arrest warrant in the case was issued Oct. 29.
Specialist No Longer Teaching at the School
Carter is no longer a teacher at Hunter Elementary School, according to the police release cited by the Charlotte Observer. The outlet reported that the school's website had listed Carter as a specialist working with adapted curriculum for students with multiple types of disabilities. ABC45's report similarly notes that Carter is no longer employed at the school.
Hunter Elementary School has just over 500 students enrolled from pre-K through grade 12, per U.S. News data cited in the Charlotte Observer's reporting. The supplied evidence does not describe the school district's policy on corporal punishment or whether the alleged conduct was treated as corporal punishment under school policy or law.
What North Carolina Law Says About Corporal Punishment
North Carolina law leaves the decision on whether to permit corporal punishment entirely up to each public school unit's governing body, according to North Carolina General Statutes § 115C-390.4. The statute also specifies that corporal punishment shall not be administered in a classroom with other students present, and it bars excessive force, defining that to include any force that results in an injury requiring medical attention beyond simple first aid.
Statewide, the practice has become increasingly rare. No North Carolina school districts reported using corporal punishment during the 2020–21 school year, marking the third consecutive year with no reported uses, according to the Charlotte Observer. That same reporting found that during the 2017–18 school year, there were 60 recorded uses of corporal punishment, all by Robeson County and Graham County schools, before Robeson County's school board voted on Aug. 14, 2018, to disallow physical punishment.
Further back, an EdNC brief reported that Robeson, Graham and Macon districts used the practice statewide during the 2014–15 school year, with 146 total occurrences recorded. An editor's note said Swain County had one instance before its local board banned the practice. EdNC also reported that students with disabilities received about 11 percent of corporal punishment administered in the state, and noted that research has found no evidence the practice is associated with improved academic outcomes. The brief placed North Carolina among 19 states, mostly in the South, that still allowed corporal punishment in schools, compared with 31 states that had enacted statewide bans.
