An assistant principal in Louisiana is facing a felony charge after allegedly forcing a 6-year-old student who to clean up her waste after the child had an accident related to a dairy allergy.
Kristy Scott Gilpin, 41, turned herself in at the Zachary Police Department on Monday according to an incident report obtained by PEOPLE.
The report shows that police charged Gilpin with a single count of cruelty to juveniles, a felony charge that carried a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $1,000 in Louisiana.
She was booked and then released that same day, according to jail records.
Gilpin’s arrest stems from an alleged incident earlier this year at Rollins Place Elementary School, which is approximately 15 miles north of Baton Rouge, where Gilpin serves as vice principal.
The mother of the 6-year-old student at the center of the case claimed in a statement last month that Gilpin forced her child to clean up her feces after the girl had an accident brought on by a dairy allergy.
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The incident occurred at Rollins Place Elementary School (above).
According to the mom, Jamisha Augustine, what allegedly happened to her daughter was avoidable since the child had a “documented food allergy” and the “district was fully aware of her condition.”
On the day in question, Augustine claimed, her daughter was “put in a situation where she consumed something that triggered a medical emergency.” As a result of this she had an accident, according to her mother.
“Rather than responding with care and compassion, my daughter — a young, innocent child — was humiliated and forced to clean her own feces. No child should ever be treated with such disregard and cruelty,” Augustine alleged in the statement, in which she pushed for criminal charges.
The mother’s lawyer, Ronald Hayley, tells PEOPLE that the decision to charge Gilpin is vindication for his client.
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“The recent arrest gives clarity as to what happened to this young innocent child,” Hayley says. “To discipline a 6-year-old old via humiliation is cruel and should never be tolerated.”
Police filed charges after a month-long investigation during which they reviewed surveillance footage from inside the school on the day in question, according to the incident report.
Gilpin’s lawyer, John McLindon, agrees with both the mother and police about the fact that the his client made the student clean up her feces. He disputes, however, the series of events leading up to that decision.
McLindon tells PEOPLE that Gilpin would not make a student clean up their waste if they had an accident, saying by way of comparison: “If someone drops a plate in the cafeteria, the janitor is going to clean it up.”
But McLindon said the girl intentionally made a mess after having the accident. He likened what occurred with the girl to someone breaking a plate intentionally: “It is not unreasonable to expect them to clean that up,” he says.
McLindon said that the accident turned into a “discipline issue.”
These two sides will now go head-to-head in court.
“My daughter’s pain will not be ignored,” Augustine said in her February statement. “And I will fight to ensure no other child endures what she did.”
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