VAN BUREN -- The Crawford County prosecuting attorney has issued a warrant for a Van Buren Middle School teacher accused of slapping an eighth-grader last month.
According to the prosecutor's office, Van Buren District Judge Steven Peer signed a warrant Thursday that seeks the arrest of Denan Elaine Cagle, 51, of Mountainburg on a misdemeanor third-degree battery charge.
She had not been arrested as of Thursday afternoon, according to a county jail official.
Contact information for Cagle was not found Thursday.
Van Buren School Superintendent Kerry Schneider sent a letter dated Feb. 2 to Cagle, saying he was recommending the School Board terminate her contract. The letter, which was released by the prosecutor's office, said she had 30 days to request a hearing before the School Board takes action on Schneider's recommendation.
Schneider said Thursday that he could not comment on Cagle's employment status but added that "anyone receiving such a notification would be on paid administrative leave."
A Van Buren police report by Allen Richesin dated Jan. 28 said that on Jan. 27, the parents of the eighth-grader, who is 13, wanted to press charges against Cagle, who they said slapped their son during a science class.
The boy's father told Richesin, according to the report, that his son was playing around with another student and that Cagle came up behind him and slapped him on the left arm. The slap was hard enough that it left red marks on his arm, he said. Other students in the class witnessed the slapping, according to the report.
Richesin had the student write a statement in which he said Cagle asked him not to report the slapping to the school office because she could be fired. School officials had other students in the class write statements about what they saw.
Cagle was placed on administrative leave last year for hitting a student in the face during an incident that occurred Nov. 10, according to school district documents released by the prosecutor's office.
One of the documents said students reported that Cagle allowed a student to rest his head on her shoulder, that she told a student she would hit him if he did not change his behavior, that she struck the student during the incident, and that she had previously stuck students with objects.
State Desk on 02/21/2015