Rockdale County mom claims teaching assistant assaulted 8-year-old nonverbal son

ROCKDALE COUNTY, Ga. - A Rockdale County mother held a news conference on Tuesday to share details about what she says happened to her 8-year-old son at one of the county's elementary schools.

Yemaya Lyles alleges that her son, Antonio, was assaulted by a paraprofessional inside a classroom at Pine Street Elementary last month. FOX5 News has learned Rockdale County officials drew up warrants in the case this week.

Nine-year old Antonio Alexander III lives with a non-verbal form of autism.

His parents said, in a news conference Tuesday, they have seen video of their son being assaulted allegedly at the hands of paraprofessional Arie Jones.

"Since that day, my son has been terrified," his mother, Yemaya Lyles, said, fighting back tears.

His family, who saw the video a week after the incident, says what happened was heartbreaking.

"The video was 7-and-half-minutes long, Antonio was in the bathroom for 2-and-a-half minutes and even after he got out of the restroom he was still being manhandled, pulled from chair to chair. Afterward, he was being yelled at; just ridiculously ridiculed. I feel like he was trying to threaten my son to make him scared of him," Ms. Lyles said.

According to attorneys representing the family, on Nov. 10, teacher's assistant Arie Jones hit Antonio, who had been diagnosed with autism and is nonverbal, and took him into a bathroom.

Three days later, Lyles said she heard about the incident and has run into problems trying to get officials to show her the security camera footage of what happened in the classroom.

"Up to the present date, neither the Rockdale County Public Schools Board of Education nor the Rockdale Police Department has released the footage," Lyles' attorneys said in a statement.

The family attorney is demanding that Rockdale County Schools release the video and respond to numerous demands that include a full investigation that determines if others should be charged, closer screening of employees when hiring, payment for Antonio to go to a private school and other demands. They clearly say Antonio is not the only victim.

"It's very clear that we have a major problem in Rockdale County and that problem is that Rockdale has created a system and a culture by which adults think it is okay to abuse innocent children," family attorney Kianna Chennault affirmed.

"I stand here, not only as Antonio's mother, but I want to be a voice for all the mothers of special needs children on the spectrum. This can't happen anymore," Ms. Lyles exclaimed.

The Rockdale County Sheriff's Office opened an investigation into the reported assault and Jones has been charged with simple battery and was let go from his position at the school.

The family says that the young boy still suffers the emotional and mental impacts of the alleged assault and needs urgent medical care and a change of school to heal.

The press conference comes just days after a former teacher at C.J. Hicks Elementary School in Conyers was arrested on two separate charges of first-degree cruelty to children.

Lawyers for the family claim they found two other cases of negative interactions within the school system - highlighting "inadequacies" in its special education services. 

"This incident, and similar recent incidents in Rockdale schools, indicate that we have a serious problem in Rockdale County schools relating to the education and treatment of special needs children. If special needs children are being abused or mistreated in schools, they are being denied a free public education, which is guaranteed to them by the United States Constitution," Attorney Kianna Chennault said in a statement. 

The family is asking the Rockdale County School Board to respond to their calls for changes in writing by the end of the year.