Two assault charges against Williamson County Superintendent of Schools Mike Looney have been dropped.
Looney was in court Wednesday morning for a hearing about his assault charges against a Franklin High School student and her mother.
Court documents reported that a student was having a psychotic episode, and that Looney responded, as well as first responders, and the Looney allegedly grabbed the student by the arm and took her out of the school, saying on multiple occasions to the student and her mother that he would not have an incident at the school.
The mother of the student testified that two weeks prior, her daughter had attempted to run out onto Hillsboro Road in early February and had to be taken to the hospital, and then transferred to a psychiatric hospital.
When she returned to school, the mother said that she had an episode, so the mother called 911. The mother reports that the daughter had suicidal tendencies, so she needed to be taken to the hospital.
The mother was outside of the room when Looney arrived, but said that she saw Looney walking out of the school with her daughter, and when she went outside to see where they were going, the student was on the ground next to Looney's car crying hysterically.
That's when the mother, Anne Turner, said Looney approached her.
“He got right back in my face and he said, ‘there will not be an incident at this school,'" Turner said.
The daughter was taken to the hospital, and the mother asked police to press charges against Looney. She admitted in testimony that she did not witness all of the interactions between Looney and her daughter.
Another witness was a Franklin police officer who was called out to the scene for a psychological emergency.
The sergeant recalled responding and said that at one point, Looney grabbed the student's arm under the armpit and tried to bring her out of her chair, but the girl refused to get up.
“Dr. Looney grabbed her by her arm, her left arm, underneath by the armpit area around the tricep and tried to force her up," sergeant Robert Kupczyk said. "She refused and verbally and physically was like, no, I’m not going with you.”
The sergeant said Looney eventually got the student to get up and leave after telling her that there was not going to be a scene at the school.
The sergeant told the court that when he was watching, he thought, "This doesn't seem right."
School officials came to Looney's defense, saying he did the right thing given the situation.
“He didn’t assault her in my opinion. I think this was a bunch of bull, but that’s just me," Franklin High School principal Willie Dickerson said.
“I don’t recall him at any point getting agitated or angry with her. He was very calm and professional," Lauren Bauer, assistant principal at Franklin High School testified.
After the testimony ended and the charges were dropped, Looney addresed the media, saying in part, "I will always put students first, I believe in that day, that I put that student first, a student in need, and the truth of it is, a lot of the things that were out in the public domain just simply weren’t true.”
More Stories:
Williamson County Superintendent Mike Looney Charged With Assault
School Board Says They Will Not Ask Dr. Looney To Step Down
Williamson Co. Director Of Schools Faces 2nd Assault Charge
