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By JOE HEALEY jhealey@leader.net
Friday, January 28, 2000 Page: 8A
FALLS TWP. – An employee of St. Michael’s School accused of assaulting a
student was suspended from his job without pay, a school spokeswoman said.
Gullen Hunter, who was employed as a child care worker at the school for
seven months, was charged with simple assault, harassment and endangering the
welfare of children.
Wyoming County District Attorney George Skumanick said the student was
examined at Tyler Memorial Hospital in Tunkhannock and marks were found on his
throat and back. Skumanick said the marks came from when Hunter shoved the
student into a dresser on Saturday evening. The student’s name was not
released.
The school for troubled youth is run by the Catholic Diocese of Scranton. A
diocese spokeswoman, Maria Orzel, said the student did not have visible marks
on his body when the incident was reported to a staff coordinator at 9:20 p.m.
“Contrary to published reports, the student subsequently asked and was
permitted to call his parents about 20 minutes later,” Orzel said in the
statement.
Within a half hour of the incident, the school investigated the allegation,
notified police, spoke with the student’s parents and took the worker out of
the dorm, Orzel said. The state Department of Public Welfare was also
notified, she said.
“It is … unfortunate and regrettable that a staff child care worker has
been charged in an alleged physical altercation involving one of the
students,” Orzel said.
An hour and a half after the incident, an ambulance took the student to a
hospital for an evaluation, Orzel said. A school staff member accompanied the
student to the hospital.
“The school is not aware of any medical treatment rendered the night of
the alleged incident, nor any physician-recommended follow-up care as a result
of the medical examination prompted by the students allegation,” Orzel said
in the statement.
Hunter is suspended pending the outcome of criminal charges and a DPW
investigation. The student remains in the residential treatment program at the
school, Orzel said.
Call Healey at 829-7225.