ANGER ISSUES
Trenton coach accused of beating his son at school has history of outbursts >>
TRENTON » Karla Townsend had received a call from Columbus Elementary School notifying her that her 10-year-old son was sick and had vomited.
When the mother arrived at Columbus on March 14 to pick her son up, she would realize the boy was also assaulted that day by his father at the school. The school had called the dad, Trenton varsity girls basketball coach Khaliq Lewis El, about his son’s illness as well.
“As I got closer to my son, I saw that his neck had marks all the way down,” Townsend recalled Monday. “My son told me that he had been dragged into the copy room by his father, he had been punched in his face, that his father put his knee in his face and that he had been thrown against the wall.”
Pictures provided to The Trentonian show the fourth grade student’s face was badly bruised and swollen from the beating, with notable scratches to his neck.
And with most cases involving child abuse within the district, the mother blasted the Trenton Public School’s handling of the situation.
Townsend said she was never made aware of what happened to her child by district employees when she arrived at Columbus.
She was shuffled from the main office to the nurse’s office, but her son wasn’t in either location. Instead a guidance counselor wanted to hold a meeting in the nurse’s office about the situation.
“My son’s father said that my son was having a crisis and that we were waiting for another teacher to come into the office,” Townsend said. “At that point, I felt really uncomfortable because I’m like, ‘Where’s my son?’ I was really upset and went out of the room.’”
Another teacher tried to calm down Townsend and led the mother to her son, who was in another room, where she observed him bruised, battered and crying.
“Mind you, the guidance counselor is trying to have a meeting with me and I haven’t even seen the condition of my son,” Townsend said in shock. “Nobody said anything.”
Townsend said she was told that when Lewis El went to the school to pick up his son, he spoke to him in the hallway. Townsend said the father was called because she didn’t immediately answer the phone, even though a custody order schedule stated Lewis El was not supposed to pick him up on that day.
Lewis El then allegedly grabbed his son by the shirt, went to the main office and asked if there was a private place where he could take his son, Townsend said.
“He was told to go into the copy room and that’s where the assault took place,” the mother said. “I’ve heard nothing from the principal. On Friday, March 16, I went to the Board of Education to report the assault and the superintendent and the assistant superintendent, they were in meetings, but I left a long-winded message with the secretary as well as showed her the pictures of his bruises, his scratches and I got nothing from them.”
Townsend said she also called the police on March 14 because the district failed to report the attack. A Trenton police spokesman did not return a message seeking comment.
“I’ve had to call the police,” the mother said. “I’ve had to call DCPP (Division of Child Protection and Permanency). I’ve had to call Institutional Abuse because nobody called anybody.”
An employee of the New Jersey Institutional Abuse Investigation Unit, which falls under the Department of Children and Families, reached out to The Trentonian on Monday about previous child abuse cases the newspaper has reported on within the past year at Trenton Public Schools. The state employee said the agency is aware of and is investigating the Columbus case as well.
According to the agency’s website, Institutional Abuse investigates allegations of child abuse and neglect in out-of-home settings such as schools. A final report is completed and “each appropriate entity is notified
of the findings of the investigation to enhance its ability to promote safety for the children in care, and minimize the likelihood of future child maltreatment in the setting,” the state division outlines.
Last month, an 11-yearold boy at Hedgepeth-Williams Middle School was beaten and choked by a classmate until he passed out. The district never contacted police or called an ambulance, the boy’s mother told the newspaper.
In May, a teacher’s aide kicked an 8-year-old boy in the cafeteria at Gregory Elementary School. The boy’s mother said Trenton school officials never contacted the proper authorities and she had to press charges on her own.
Then in June, a school security guard at Jefferson Elementary School allegedly grabbed a 9-year-old male student by the neck and punched him in the chest. Like the May case, the mother of the victim said the district did nothing to help her with seeking justice for her son.
Both the security guard and the teacher’s aide were ultimately charged with child endangerment after the mothers contacted police about the attacks.
Townsend said Lewis El has been allowed to work as a district paraprofessional at Gregory Elementary School since the assault. Lewis El, whose first name is really Tennyson, has worked in the district since 2006, earning an annual salary of nearly $40,000, records show.
The Trenton school board’s hiring of Lewis El as coach was controversial. He replaced Reggie Murray — the winningest coach in Mercer County — who was unceremoniously not appointed back to his position this fall by the district.
Lewis El was hired in November for a stipend of $7,828 despite being forced to step down as coach at Trenton Catholic for having an outburst during a game. His temper has apparently not changed this year as Lewis El was suspended for a couple games after receiving two technical fouls during a game, The Trentonian has learned.
Lewis El did not return a message seeking comment.
Townsend said she attended Trenton Superintendent Fred McDowell’s listening tour event at Columbus Elementary School on Monday.
“A lot of parents feel like all the other parents in the paper with stories that nobody is listening to them, that they’re not being heard,” the mother said, adding she questioned McDowell how the district handles acts of violence in the schools. “There were no real answers. Parents shouldn’t have to feel this way.”
A district spokeswoman did not return a message seeking comment.