Former CPS employee sentenced for assaulting student
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A former Columbia Public Schools employee pleaded guilty three years after he was accused of inappropriately touching a middle school student with a disability.
Thomas Edwards was sentenced to six months in the Boone County Jail. The execution of the sentence was suspended for two years of unsupervised probation, according to Boone County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Merilee Crockett.
She said Edwards signed and filed a voluntary surrender of his teaching certificate with the court Thursday morning.
Edwards was charged in March 2017 with misdemeanor fourth-degree assault. Court documents said Edwards placed his hand under a child’s clothing and touched his/her buttock.
The incident happened sometime between August 2015 and February 2017 at Oakland Middle School.
A CPS spokesperson previously said Edwards started working for the district in September 2003 as a paraprofessional. He was terminated from his classroom aide position in February 2017.
