A Spotsylvania County mother unknowingly found herself face-to-face with the Spotswood Elementary School assistant principal who allegedly assaulted her 5-year-old daughter on Aug. 28.
Marie Garr called the school approximately 20 minutes after her first-grade daughter arrived home that day. Garr said the impetus for her call were “huge” marks and bruises on the child’s back and ribs that her daughter attributed to a woman with curly hair and glasses.
Garr called the school social worker and other administrators, but Assistant Principal Misty Kelley was the only one who immediately responded.
After they spoke on the telephone, Garr said Kelley traveled alone to her home to further address her concerns, at one point offering her daughter a box of candy.
“When Ms. Kelley came up here, my daughter would not speak to her, which is odd because normally she’s very chatty,” Garr said. “I said, ‘Why didn’t you want to speak to her?’ She said, ‘Mommy, because she did it. Yes, Mom, I swear, she’s the one that pinched me, and she hurt me.”
Garr immediately called the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office, which announced Wednesday afternoon that Kelley, 52, turned herself in and is now facing a misdemeanor assault and battery charge related to the incident.
A message from Spotswood Principal Jamie Sotzing was sent out via the Spotsylvania County Public Schools communications office stating that school officials are aware of the allegations, and that Kelley, who was not named in the correspondence, was immediately placed on leave.
“This matter is a personnel matter and is being addressed according to our school board policies,” Sotzing wrote. “As such we’re not able to provide specific details regarding the matter. This is an ongoing investigation that is being handled by the sheriff’s office. Please be assured that we take this very seriously. The safety of our students and staff is top priority. As a division, we do not condone any issues impacting the safety of our students.”
Garr said detectives informed her there is video footage of the incident, but she has not viewed it. She said that Kelley did not acknowledge touching her daughter during telephone and in-person conversations but pledged to investigate the matter.
“She did get back to me later, and she said, ‘I am looking at the video and the last person is me, but my hands aren’t on her. We’re walking with my arm around her,’” Garr said of the conversation with Kelley.
The sheriff’s office said in a press release that an investigation determined that Kelley was the adult who allegedly inflicted the injuries on Garr’s daughter. A court date has not been set.
Garr said the day started out well as she visited the school to discuss her daughter’s Individualized Education Program (IEP).
But later, around 11 a.m., school administrators called Garr repeatedly to tell her that her daughter was “eloping,” or leaving the classroom, misbehaving and hitting the teacher.
When she spoke to Kelley after noticing the marks and bruises later that afternoon, she said Kelley attempted to steer the conversation to her daughter potentially injuring her legs by crawling on concrete. The statement from the sheriff’s office noted that when the mother questioned the child, she was told an adult at the school grabbed her because she did not want to walk.
“[Kelley] straight up told me, ‘You need to be more concerned about her legs because she was crawling on concrete and I told her not to,’” Garr said. “I told her, ‘No ma’am. Do not ever tell a mother what to be concerned about. She is going to hurt herself sometimes. This is what she does. She’s 5 and a tomboy.’”
Kelley is the wife of Caroline County School Board Chair Shawn Kelley, who is a history, geography, social sciences and government teacher at Spotsylvania High School. In response to a message from the Free Press seeking comment, Kelley stated, “I have no response at this time.”
This is the second time this year that a Spotsylvania County Public Schools employee has been charged with assault and battery of a student. Former behavioral interventionist Gloria Joan Jackson was convicted of misdemeanor assault and battery of a kindergarten student last month in relation to an April 10 incident at Cedar Forest Elementary School.
In May, a Spotswood Elementary second-grade teacher was charged with felony child endangerment and neglect after cocaine and fentanyl were allegedly found in her classroom. Candyce Leigh Carter faces 18 felony child endangerment charges and two felony drug charges in that case.
Garr’s daughter was a kindergartener at Cedar Forest in 2023-24 but was transferred to Spotswood because of what her mother characterized as unresponsiveness from the administration regarding an IEP.
Garr added that she believes there are systemic safety issues in Spotsylvania schools that need to be addressed.
“As parents, we should be allowed to let our children be safe with other people, especially educators,” Garr said. “Right now, it’s just not fair that we have to fight for the right for our kids to be safe.”
