A Fairfax County teacher was charged with assault Thursday following a struggle with one of her students a day before at Cameron Elementary School.
Maria Waugh, 42, of Alexandria, has resigned following the incident with a 12-year-old boy in her sixth-grade class, according to school officials. Her mother, however, told The Examiner on Friday that the student first attacked the teacher.
“She tells me that she asked the young man to go to his seat and do his math, and he didn’t do it,” said Waugh’s mother, Mary Bumbrey. “So she asked him a second time. He said, ‘I will when I get ready,’ and she says he hit her in the back, took her hands and put her hands behind him. Her arm is bruised.”
Police spokeswoman Camille Neville would not offer details on the altercation, saying only that “it appears that there was some sort of discussion about his behavior that led up to the assault.” A Fairfax County Public Schools spokeswoman also declined to discuss the incident.
The child, who was not identified, was not injured, police said.
The student returned home Wednesday and explained what happened to his parents, who called police, police said. Waugh was issued a summons for assault at the Franconia District police station and released on her signature.
Waugh has been employed with Fairfax County Public Schools since 1999 and worked at Cameron Elementary School since 2001, said schools spokeswoman Mary Shaw. The school on Campbell Drive has about 544 students, kindergarten through sixth grade.
Bumbrey said she was “disgusted” with the ordeal.
“It’s just devastating seeing something had to go this far … she realizes that you don’t touch children, and she said, well, she couldn’t let him stand there and beat her up,” Bumbrey said.
Waugh could not be reached Friday.
