Inset: Janelle Brooks (Warner Elementary School Facebook). Background: Warner Elementary School in East Nashville (Google Maps).
A principal from Tennessee is embroiled in serious allegations involving child abuse. Janelle Brooks, aged 38, stands accused of abusing her teenage son by allegedly making him leave their home clad only in underwear, subsequently assaulting him with a paddle, and choking him to the point where he struggled to breathe.
Law enforcement officials apprehended Brooks, who leads Warner Arts Magnet Elementary School based in East Nashville. She now faces charges of aggravated domestic assault, as per court documents.
Concerns about Brooks’ behavior emerged after her former spouse—the boy’s father—alerted the Portland Police Department. He expressed fears for his kids’ well-being while under their mother’s care, reported by the Nashville Banner. Initial worries included suspicions regarding Brooks’ new partner potentially disciplining the children without consultation.
Statements given by the 13-year-old to law enforcement reveal that Brooks had demanded he vacate her residence, forbidding him from taking any belongings that she purchased—clothing included, according to The Tennessean report. This left the young boy standing outside dressed solely in his underwear.
Brooks then allegedly grabbed a paddle from another room and struck her son in the legs multiple times before grabbing him around his neck and squeezing until he was “wheezing” for breath, Nashville Fox affiliate WZTV reported.
Asked why he didn’t contact police about the alleged violent incident, the victim reportedly said he was not permitted access to a phone or other electronic device when at his mother’s home.
In an interview with detectives, Brooks allegedly admitted that she used a paddle to discipline her son, according to the arrest affidavit.
“Mrs. Brooks stated that her son, the 13-year-old, had disrespected her,” police reportedly wrote in the affidavit. “Mrs. Brooks stated further that she had grabbed a paddle to discipline her son, to which she said he had responded ‘you’re not going to paddle me.’ Mrs. Brooks stated that she told her 13 year old son that he could get out then. However she was not allowing him to leave with any items she had personally purchased for him, so her 13-year-old son was now only in his underwear.”
The principal also reportedly acknowledged going for her son’s throat because he had “swelled up at her,” but claimed the boy grabbed her arms and tried to block her.
One day after Brooks’ Aug. 20 arrest, Metro Nashville Public Schools placed her on administrative leave pending an external investigation. In an email to parents obtained by the Banner, the district said the incident had nothing to do with Brooks’ work at the school.
“The matter involving Dr. Brooks had nothing to do with her work as principal or to the operations of Warner Elementary,” the district said. “Because this is an ongoing personnel matter, we are unable to provide additional information at this time.”
Brooks was released from the Sumner County Jail on Aug. 21 after posting a $15,000 bond, court records show. She was also served with an order of protection and is scheduled to make her first appearance in court Sept. 4.
The post Elementary school principal paddled son who ‘disrespected her’ before strangling boy until he was ‘wheezing’ for air: Police first appeared on Law & Crime.