A Campus monitor at Tohopekaliga High School was arrested by Osceola Sheriff Deputies on Monday and is now facing a child abuse charge after he allegedly slammed a student to the ground after hearing the student use the N-word in the classroom, deputies said.
26-year-old Chris Ferguson, who had only been working at the school for a week, was arrested Monday afternoon after deputies say he approached the student shortly after hearing him saying the N-word to a classmate and told the student “he could not speak like that.” Ferguson then requested that the student step out of the room.
According to deputies, Ferguson grabbed the student “by the shirt and neck and lifted him up to the ceiling, leaving red marks over his neck and chest area” before slamming him to the ground.
Officials said the student was taken to the THS nurse’s office, but no details have been released. Ferguson was arrested on a charge of child abuse without great bodily harm, Ferguson also resigned from the school on Monday.
Ferguson was booked into the Osceola County jail and has since bonded out.
