‘Bawling hysterically;’ Local mom says school lunch aide smacked her son

CHAMPAIGN COUNTY — A Champaign County mom says a lunch aide hit her son, and now the aide is facing a criminal charge.

As reported on News Center 7 at 5:00, Mary Crawford showed up at her son’s school last Tuesday to give him a dose of prescription medication for a toothache.

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Then she heard something else over the school’s radio system about her 4th grader.

“Some lady came over the walkie-talkie and said— very angry— that she had him. He was on his way down and she disciplined him,” Crawford said.

Moments later, her son showed up in the office.

“He comes in bawling hysterically. To the point where he couldn’t understand anything he was saying,” she said.

Once he calmed down, Crawford said her son said a lunch aid smacked him on the back. She shared a photo with News Center 7 taken minutes after the incident that show redness around her son’s right shoulder blade.

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“There was a hand mark on his back,” Crawford said.

Crawford said she gave police a written statement.

Champaign County court records show after an Urbana police investigation the lunch aide, identified by police in the documents as 76-year-old Judith Ewers, was served with a court summons for a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct on Monday.

Urbana City Schools provided a statement further confirming the incident while adding that the district is investigating and put the aide on paid leave until the investigation is finished.

Court records show when police served the aide with a court summons on Monday she told police she resigned her job with the school.

We will continue updating this story.

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