School employee admits assaulting 7-year-old

A former worker at a school faces jail time for assaulting a student, who suffered a fractured collarbone.

NORRISTOWN » A onetime behavioral health specialist at an Upper Dublin Township educational facility potentially faces jail time for assaulting a 7-year-old boy, who suffered a fractured collarbone, during an incident at the school.

Jeremiah W. Fulton, 34, of the 2700 block of North 11th Street, Philadelphia, pleaded guilty in Montgomery County Court on Monday to misdemeanor charges of endangering the welfare of a child and simple assault of a child in connection with a March 2017 incident at the Wordsworth Academy in the Fort Washington section of Upper Dublin.

Judge Risa Vetri Ferman deferred sentencing until later this year so that court officials can complete a background investigative report about Fulton.

Fulton, who remains free on bail pending sentencing, faces a possible maximum sentence of five to 10 years in prison on the charges. However, state sentencing guidelines could allow for a lesser sentence.

The judge ordered Fulton to have no contact with the child or his family as a condition of bail.

Assistant District Attorney Lauren Marvel vowed to seek jail time against Fulton.

“This is a case of a man who was trained in his job to take care of children and he violated that position of trust and power and in doing so he hurt this little guy. Kids are the most vulnerable people in our county and he hurt him,” Marvel said. “He owed a duty of care to this small child and he violated that duty of care.”

Fulton is represented by defense lawyer Henry S. Hilles III.

An investigation of Fulton began on March 9, 2017, when Upper Dublin police were notified by an emergency room doctor at Lower Bucks Hospital in Bristol that a 7-year-old boy was being treated there for a fractured right clavicle injury, according to the criminal complaint. The boy, a student at Wordsworth Academy, told hospital officials he had been pushed into a wall by “Mr. Jeremiah” at the school on March 8, according to the arrest affidavit.

Detectives identified Fulton, a behavioral health specialist who worked with students at Wordsworth Academy, as the suspect.

“The school had video surveillance of the incident,” Upper Dublin Detective Mike Scarpato wrote in the arrest affidavit, adding the video depicted the child being carried into the “quiet work area” at the school after acting up in a classroom.

The child allegedly tried to run from the room several times, detectives said. When a second behavioral health specialist left the room, Fulton, according to the video surveillance, picked up the child by the wrist and threw him into a wall, according to the criminal complaint. The child’s right shoulder struck the wall, detectives alleged.

“The child immediately falls to the floor, grabs the upper right area of his shoulder and appears to be crying and in pain,” Scarpato alleged. “(Fulton) is then observed kneeling down on the floor next to the child, holding child by left arm and appears to be correcting child.

“Later on in the video you can observe Mr. Fulton again crouched down in front of victim and flicks the child in the cheek and puts finger in child’s ear,” Scarpato added.

Detectives, quoting hospital records, said the boy suffered an angulated fracture in the mid-portion of his right clavicle, had his right arm in a sling and missed four weeks of school.

“There is no excuse for treating a 7-year-old child like that, for throwing a little boy into a wall. There’s no excuse whatsoever,” Marvel said.

Under state law, by pleading guilty to endangering the welfare of a child, Fulton admitted that he knowingly violated a duty of care for a child under his supervision. By pleading guilty to simple assault, Fulton admitted that he intentionally or recklessly caused bodily injury to the 7-yearold boy.