Law enforcement speaks on arrest of elementary school principal

FAYETTE COUNTY, Tenn.– According to the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office, on February 2, a Southwest Elementary student who was misbehaving was involved in an altercation with a teacher.

“The student picked up a metal tumbler or metal cup and struck the teacher in the face and the head with the cup,” said Chief Deputy Ray Garcia of the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office.

The school’s Student Resource Officer Randy Collins, who is employed by the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office, was not notified of this incident by school staff.

“The only reason we found out about the incident is because our school resource officer in that school happened to overhear a conversation between some individuals several days after the incident took place,” said Garcia.

This is when Collins asked school principal, Fabre Ford why he was not notified of the incident.

“The school resource officer was basically told the situation had been handled and that there really wasn’t anything else to discuss on the situation,” said Garcia.

The Sheriff’s Office says that Principal Ford refused to cooperate with their investigation of the incident and insisted the matter had been dealt with. Principal Ford was then charged with tampering or fabricating evidence in the investigation of an aggravated assault. The Sheriff’s Office says their investigators will continue to investigate the incident. However, there are now allegations that the teacher may have assaulted the student first and the student was defending themself.

We reached out to the Fayette County School District. However, they were not immediately available for comment.