Lunch lady accused of slapping girl at Vancouver school

VANCOUVER, Wash. - A family wants answers after their 9-year-old daughter says she was slapped in the head by her school lunch lady.

According to the Evergreen School District, something did happen but it is trying to determine if it was intentional. Meanwhile, the third-grader is afraid to go to school.

"Shelby" and her mom, "Heather", said on Wednesday of last week at Burnt Bridge Creek Elementary School, Shelby and her friend were waiting to be dismissed from the lunch room at Burnt Bridge Creek Elementary School on March 21 when the lunch lady became upset because Shelby's friend was talking.

Shelby said she started to cry because the lunch lady took their recess time away, and then she was hit.

"She had a full hand and she has really long nails and she slapped me, and her nails kind of digged into my head," Shelby said.

According to the school district, the lunch lady was put on leave for four days.

"We understand the little girl was upset and she was crying, and we do believe that somehow she might have been hit in the back of the head," said school district spokeswoman Carol Fenstermacher. "The big question is, was it an accident? It's a crowded lunch room. Was something else going on? So we're trying to get to the bottom of it."

One of the problems here is it's a child's word against an adult's and then there were other children as witnesses. The district says the stories are not matching up.

The lunch lady is now on campus, but she is not on duty in the lunch room. The district has her working on other things at the school.

"We're not trying to be vengeful, we're just trying to get answers," Heather said.

Shelby's mom said the district has told them little about the investigation and said Shelby doesn't want to go to school now that the lunch lady is back at work.

"I'm scared she's going to be there again and push me or something," Shelby said.

According to the district, because it's a personnel issue, by law it isn't allowed to share a lot of information.

Shelby's parents say they may transfer her to another school because they say she is afraid to see the lunch lady on campus.

The school district has surveillance cameras in high school lunchrooms but not in elementary schools.