BENTONVILLE — A former teacher accused of hitting a seventh-grader was found guilty Wednesday of a charge of harassment, but was acquitted on a charge of battery in the third degree.
Pamela Nelson, 58, of Springdale faced the charges, both class A misdemeanors, because of an incident stemming from her short stint as a choir and keyboarding teacher last year at the Benton County School of the Arts in Rogers.
The jury made up of six men and six women went out at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday and returned its verdicts about four hours later. Nelson will receive a $150 fine and no jail time.
Prosecutors said Nelson hit the student Oct. 1, 2012, during a keyboarding class. The boy, now 13, said the hit was strong enough to knock the wind out of him.
School administrators said they noticed a red mark on the upper left part of the boy’s back when he lifted his shirt to show it to them. His family called police to file a complaint later that day.
Nelson took the stand Wednesday. She denied hitting the boy, saying she merely tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention because he had been talking during class.
She acknowledged the boy had a mark on his back, but said, “I didn’t put it there.”
The mother of three said she never even spanked her own children.
“I don’t believe in corporal punishment,” Nelson said. “I didn’t hit a child at the Benton County School of the Arts or anywhere else.”
Seventeen people, including 10 former or current students at the School of the Arts, testified during the trial. That included a 14-year-old girl called by the defense.
The girl said the boy, who was a friend of hers, told her outside school he was going to get Nelson fired. This was a few hours before the reported incident involving him and Nelson, the girl said.
“He said, ‘I don’t like (Nelson). I really don’t,’” the girl said.
That testimony surprised both prosecutors and defense attorneys. The girl hadn’t shared that information with either side before the trial, they said. Asked why she never shared that information with police, the girl said, “They never contacted me.”
The same girl also said she saw the boy hitting himself on his lower back that day, right before lunch in the hall.
“I thought it was strange,” she said.
Prosecutors, however, called two other girls to testify, both of whom were students at Benton County School of the Arts last year. Both girls at one point told investigators they’d seen the boy hitting himself on the back, but they said Wednesday they had been told by the first girl to say that.
Nelson, wearing all black, occasionally wiped her face and eyes during her time on the stand.
Many of the prosecutors’ questions of Nelson centered on her history as a teacher. Though Nelson said she’d been teaching for 35 years, most of it had been as a private music teacher. When the Benton County School of the Arts hired her last year, it was her first full-time job as a classroom teacher.
Asked by deputy prosecutor Stuart Cearley to grade herself on her classroom management skills, Nelson said she’d give herself an “A.”
“I won’t say I’m perfect, but I’m pretty good,” Nelson said.
The jury also heard two other students describe negative experiences with Nelson last fall.
A 13-year-old boy said Nelson drew an X over his mouth with a marker after calling him to the front of the room during choir class. He said he was embarrassed by the incident. Nelson, who later apologized to the boy, said Wednesday she was only having fun with the boy, and at the time, “he was laughing as loud as anyone” in the room.
Another student, a 13-year-old girl, said during a keyboarding class last year, Nelson laid her hand on the back of the girl’s neck because she had been chatting during class. The girl said it made her “uncomfortable.”
At A Glance
Potential Penalties
Pamela Nelson faces a charge of battery in the third degree and a charge of harassment, both class A misdemeanors, which are punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.
Source: Staff report