(THE ADVOCATE) — A first-grade teacher in St. Francisville resigned this week amid an investigation into allegations she berated, kicked and slapped a student during a lunch break at Bains Lower Elementary School.
West Feliciana Parish sheriff’s deputies issued an arrest warrant for the teacher, Chanel M. Lemelle, on Thursday on a count of cruelty to juveniles after a number of people told deputies that Lemelle struck the student inside the school’s cafeteria on Jan. 23. The incident also was captured by surveillance cameras.
Attempts to reach Lemelle on Friday evening were unsuccessful.
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Her father, J.S. “Stan” Lemelle, a retired federal prosecutor who once served as the interim U.S. attorney for Louisiana’s Middle District, said the family is deferring comment to his daughter’s attorney, Don Cazayoux.
