Woman Faces Felony Charge for Allegedly Punching Elementary School Principal ArticlePure

A sideline altercation at an elementary school basketball game in Louisiana last week ended with two women in jail and one in the hospital.

On Monday, Jan. 13, the principal of Iberville Elementary School — located in Plaquemine, a city in Iberville Parish — was watching students play basketball after school hours when she spotted two small children wandering onto the court, according to local outlet WAFB.

To keep the kids out of harm’s way, the principal moved from her corner spot in the school gymnasium and moved them away from the active game — an action she repeated at least twice, according to the outlet, which obtained surveillance footage of the incident. 

In a clip of one of the instances, the principal can be seen lifting a young student up and away from the court while guiding the other to do the same.

Continuing her efforts to keep the kids away from the action, she flagged a mom walking by who had “three kids in tow,” as well as a friend with her, Plaquemine Police Chief Stephen Engolio told WAFB.

The principal then instructed the mom, whom police have since been identified as Alessia Parker, to “keep [her] kids off the basketball court” because “it disrupts the whole game,” the police chief said. Parker, 33, “obviously took offense with that,” Engolio told WAFB, foreshadowing her reaction, which was caught on the surveillance footage.

In the courtside footage, the mom — who was holding one child’s hand and had another kid on her hip — becomes visibly upset, stepping forward and moving very close to the principal. The principal then puts a hand up and on Parker, who then immediately appears to hit the educator in the head.

“The [principal] puts her hand up to kind of keep her off her and [Parker] just punched her, knocked her out of her chair,” Engolio said of the altercation.

A deputy with the Iberville Sheriff’s Department was at the game and stepped in immediately to break things up between the two women, per WAFB. But Parker’s punch left a mark on the principal.

Police said she suffered a “busted lip” and head injury and was taken to the hospital, per WAFB. She was able to return to work the following day, according to another Louisiana outlet, WBRZ.

“She’s okay now,” Engolio said of the educator, “but it was a pretty brutal attack.”

Parker turned herself in the next day, and Plaquemine Police arrested her and charged her with resisting officers, disturbing the peace and battery of a school teacher, which is a felony, according to WAFB and the Plaquemine Post South.

Plaquemine Police and the Iberville Sheriff’s Department did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment on Sunday, Jan. 19.

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Another woman who was allegedly involved in the incident, Jemecia Godchaux, was also arrested, the Plaquemine Post South reported.

Referring to her as Parker’s “cohort,” Engolio alleged to WAFB that Godchaux, 37, was “kind of egging it on, made some threats and was cussing people out, too.” The outlet did not release footage of Godchaux’s involvement in the conflict.

Godchaux was booked, and police said she also had at least one other pending bench warrant, according to the Plaquemine Post South and WBRZ.

In a statement to both outlets, Iberville Parish School Board Superintendent Dr. Louis Voiron said that the Louisiana school system “would not tolerate the type of behavior” that Parker and Godchaux exhibited at the basketball game.

Both women have been “banned” from all schools in the system, the superintendent added.