An Alabama Christian school’s reigning Teacher of the Year has been arrested after a video surfaced appearing to show her savagely beating her son with a belt.
Nicole Staples, a second grade teacher at Cottage Hill Christian Academy in Mobile, has also been fired from her job after she was charged with willful abuse of a child under 18, according to AL.com.
Staples, 44, was arrested on Wednesday after authorities received a tip about a disturbing video in which she can be seen whipping her 12-year-old son more than 20 times with a belt, the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office said.
The boy is heard screaming in pain before Staples pulls him up by his hair and hurls a flurry of profanity over his failure to follow directions.
“This was abuse and an assault, far beyond discipline,” Sheriff Paul Burch told local CBS affiliate WKRG.
Burch said another sibling living in the home recorded the video of the incident and sent it to an older brother, who then posted it to social media.
“Based on the fact that someone within the home … felt the need to video that, told me that wasn’t the first time that happened,” the sheriff said.
Jackson Staples, the 24-year-old brother who received the video, told Fox 10 that his mother had beaten him his “whole life.”
The boy who was beaten and his other siblings in the home are now staying with their aunt as their mom faces criminal charges, Jackson said.
Cottage Hill Christian Academy named Staples a co-Teacher of the Year in May, according to social media posts that have since been deleted.
