Rockdale County

Mom of teen body-slammed by teacher says it’s happened before

ROCKDALE COUNTY, Ga. — A metro Atlanta mother whose teenage son was body-slammed by a teacher says it’s not the first time this has happened.

Edward Senter was caught on video knocking a student to the ground while drying to prevent a fight in December. Senter was a teacher and the athletic director at Heritage High School in Rockdale before he was arrested and fired. He’s now facing a simple assault charge.

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Channel 2′s Tyisha Fernandes spoke to the mother of the student, who did not want to be identified.

She said what you can see in the video is not the first time Senter put hands on her son. School officials investigated after the first incident, but didn’t fire Senter.

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The school didn’t fire the teacher until the boy’s mom alerted them to a video of the second incidnet that was starting to circulate on social media.

“it hurt my hear to see that. My son could have lost his life,” the mom said. “I had to contact them to let them know that I saw this video circulating around the internet and something needed to be done about this matter.”

The mother said she believes Senter had a personal issue with her son.

“All those other kids around, you just decide to grab him out of a whole crowd, pick him up, and body-slam him?” she said.

Fernandes asked the mom how the teacher should have handled her son, who was clearly out of control.

“He was a little hostile, but he’s not a threat,” she said. “He didn’t put his hands on no one. I felt like they could’ve just grabbed him and pushed him away from the crowd.”

Fernandes has been trying to get ahold of Senter since Wednesday to get his side of the story, but he hasn’t responded to any of her messages.