An acclaimed Cobb County teacher threw a stool and hit a student in school, according to a police warrant.
Maurice Simmons was arrested on a misdemeanor battery charge on Thursday, jail records show.
The 40-year-old PE teacher was named the 2017-2018 Teacher of the Year at Lindley Middle School.
The school district told Channel 2 Action News that Simmons is no longer an employee but declined to say if he resigned or was fired.
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According to a warrant, Simmons was on hall duty when a 13-year-old student put a cold bottle of water on his neck.
Simmons took the stool he was sitting on and threw it at the student, hitting him in the stomach, police wrote. It isn’t clear from the warrant what led to the student placing the water bottle on Simmon’s neck.
Investigators interviewed four teachers who confirmed the student’s story.
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Simmons bonded out of jail for $1,870 about nine hours after being arrested, jail records indicate.
A Channel 2 reporter knocked on the door of his Douglasville home, but no one answered.
A woman at a number listed for Simmons indicated to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she knew him and said she’d pass along the request for comment. She declined to say anything else before the line disconnected.
Simmons’ next court date was not listed in the online magistrate court database.
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