LAURENS COUNTY, Ga. — East Laurens High School athlete Norrion King said a joke he made with a school employee turned physical.
"I was a little confused,” he said. “Because once he used to be my old coach and that he's a school administrator and somebody that I knew I could joke around like that. But obviously not now because a whole different situation going on."
King said it happened when he and some teammates were watching Thursday’s junior varsity football game. He says Chip Fleming — the school's athletic coordinator — came over to comment on how they should play. King said he responded by suggesting Fleming go ask one of the team's coaches.
"I said, 'I don't know, Chip, go ask your best friend,'” he said. “I said like 10 times. He didn't say nothing the first time, so I thought we were playing. He took offense to it, kept saying I was being disrespectful, walked in front of me, stepped on my foot and slapped me."
King's mother Sharetta Ellington said she was in her car in the stadium lot when it happened. She said when she heard what happened, she felt upset and angry. Then she approached Fleming.
"I was like, ‘Hey, you know, Chip. Can I speak with you?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah about what?’ And I was like, ‘Did you put your hands on my son?’ and he was like, ‘Yeah,’” Ellington said. “And I was like, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘Oh, we were just horse playing,’ and I was like ‘Horse playing or not, you don't put your hands on anybody's child.’"
She called the Laurens County Sheriff's Office to make a complaint. Now Fleming is charged with simple assault and simple battery. At least two other students witnessed the slap, according to the incident report.
Ellington said she asked the school for the surveillance video showing what happened, and they have not released it to her.
We reached out to Fleming, but he has not responded. In a phone call with 13WMAZ, Laurens County School District Superintendent Clifford Garnto said the district will not comment on Fleming’s employment status because it is a "personnel matter."
Garnto said the school board's next meeting is on Sept. 12, but he would not say whether they would discuss Fleming at that meeting.
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