A La Porte ISD teacher is out on bond, accused of causing injury to a child after hitting an 8-year-old in the face during a game of dodgeball.
Lawyers for Ryan Lemmon, a physical education teacher at College Park Elementary, say their client already apologized for inadvertently hitting the boy with the Nerf-like ball.
“You basically are charging this person with a third-degree felony that carries up to 10 years in prison for basically hitting a kid with something that's a glorified Nerf ball,” says defense attorney Joseph Gutheinz.
Gutheinz says the boy finished out the school day without ever seeing the school nurse.
“It was only the next day the mother brought him to see a doctor and the doctor basically said I don't see any evidence of an injury, if you can't hear something its probably because of a loud noise.”
Gutheinz says his client was only trying to get the boy's attention after witnessing the boy hit other kids in the face during dodgeball.
“He did not believe he hurt him and he's sorry if he caused him any type of grief,” he says. “This was basically a Nerf ball and the only reason he threw it in the first place was this kid was throwing balls at other people.”
Lemmon is suspended with pay until the legal matter is resolved.