Oak Park principal charged with not reporting abuse of special needs child

Oak Park principal charged with not reporting abuse of special needs student

Emanuel Hailey is the principal of Pepper Elementary School in Oak Park. A second school employee is accused of committing the actual abuse, but has not formally been charged yet.

FOX 2 - An elementary school principal is facing charges for allegedly not reporting and documenting allegations of abuse of a nonverbal child with autism.

The backstory:

Emanuel Hailey is the principal of Pepper Elementary School in Oak Park. A second school employee is accused of committing the actual abuse, but has not formally been charged yet.

Hailey, who is charged with failure to report abuse, and appeared in court Friday afternoon.

This reported abuse allegedly was carried about by a paraprofessional with the school — accused of hitting and beating a nonverbal child with autism — who was only 5 years old. 

FOX 2 spoke with the child’s mother, who wanted to remain anonymous — but said her kid would come home with bruises, scratches, torn clothing — and says she reported this to the school at least nine times.

Police claim that documentation was not kept by the school.

Dig deeper:

The child's mother who wished to remain anonymous, shared her story:

"I was seeing the hand prints, the marks, cuts and the bruises and things like that, on her body," she said. "And I’m like, ‘You didn’t do that to yourself’ and you can tell the difference between a child’s hand print and an adult. It was just the things like the bruises on her ribs and things like that.

"It was a number of things happening in the school. It is heartbreaking, you kinda felt helpless but you have to toe the line. You don’t want to go in there guns blazing, but at the same time you have to protect your child. 

"It was difficult, you still have to go to the school, take care of business, go to meetings, field trips, you still have to see these people and they’re still there."

Hailey’s personal bond was set at $5,000.

The paraprofessional to our knowledge still works at the school and there are no charges for that person yet. 

The district did not respond to requests for comment by FOX 2.

Emanuel Hailey is the principal of Pepper Elementary School