MACON, Ga., Oct. 22 (UPI) -- A Georgia teacher has been charged with beating a student's mother in front of a classroom of fourth graders.
Katrina Ann Rucker allegedly broke Lurella Amica's nose during the assault at Bibb County's Bruce Weir Elementary School, the Macon Telegraph reported. Rucker faces charges that include battery and cruelty to children.
Amica told police that she went to the school to give her daughter a note and met the crying girl who told her Rucker had thrown her book bag in the trash. She said that when she pulled the bag out of a wastebasket, Rucker tried to take it away from her, then knocked her down with a chair and began hitting her.
Investigators say that the child was crying to Rucker to stop hitting her mother and that the teacher hit her when she approached. A school official and another teacher eventually pulled Rucker away from Amica.
Rucker told police that Amica hit her in the hand during their struggle over the book bag and that it hurt because she had had a hot in that hand.
School officials say that they will conduct their own investigation of the incident after the criminal charges are resolved.
