North Carolina teen charged as adult with slapping teacher, assaulting professor

A 17-year-old girl was arrested in North Carolina and has been charged with felonies for attacking two teachers at Parkland High School in Winston-Salem, and will be charged as an adult.

The subject, identified as Aquavis Hickman, was charged with assault and kidnapping last week after slapping a teacher on April 15 and attacking another teacher last February, WGHP-TV reported.

For his part, Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill made it clear that they will defend student authorities from attacks by students.

“We support teachers. We will fight to protect those teachers. And if you lay your hand on a teacher and assault him, you can expect the punishment to be swift and severe,” O’Neill said.

In the first incident, which occurred on February 1, Hickman was charged with second-degree kidnapping and misdemeanor rioting for the attack on a teacher at the school, identified as Larry Edwards. The victim, who is a retired educator, worked as a substitute teacher, and admitted that he was distraught after Hickman and other students shoved his head in the hallway.

During the most recent incident last month, prosecutors said the teen troublemaker approached the teacher and punched her twice. The attack was captured on video that later went viral on social media.

Winston-Salem Police Chief William Penn expressed his displeasure with the situation and stated that such behavior will not be tolerated.

“That video went viral across the country and put us on the map in a negative way,” Penn told the aforementioned media. “I’m so glad today that the rest of the nation is also hearing that we don’t tolerate that in Winston-Salem and Forsyth County.”

For now, the case against Hickman was transferred from juvenile court to Superior Court last week, where a grand jury voted to indict him. School district officials declined to comment on the case or the suspect’s arrest.

With information from WGHP-TV / New York Post