The principal of Cayce Elementary School investigated an alleged assault by a teacher’s assistant against a special needs student for four days before bringing it to the attention of the school resource officer.

Lexington County School District 2, which oversees the school, confirmed the timeline to the Chronicle.

“During the afternoon of Friday, May 20, 2022, a teacher assistant advised Cayce Elementary School Principal Andrew Drozdak that she had observed an employee using inappropriate physical restraints with a student that same day,” said Dawn Kujawa, the district’s public information officer.

“Upon receiving this information, Mr. Drozdak notified District Administration and the employee was suspended immediately and did not return to the school. Mr. Drozdak continued to investigate the incident and upon completion of that investigation, on May 24, the School Resource Officer was notified.”

The Cayce Police Department announced the arrest of the teacher’s assistant, Melanie Juliette Harris, on Wednesday. The department said that the school resource officer was notified of the incident at about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Harris was a special education assistant teacher, according to the school’s website. She is charged with second degree assault, kidnapping and unlawful conduct towards a minor.

The Chronicle reached out to a spokesperson for the Cayce Police asking if schools investigating such incidents independently before informing their school resource officers is standard practice. They provided a statement:

"Our SRO’s are tantamount to safety and for that to work best our SRO’s must work hand in hand with school administrators at the very beginning of an incident. In any victimization the longer it is not reported, the harder it becomes to hold proper people accountable.”

In response, District 2 issued a statement about its working relationship with local law enforcement.

"The district values our relationship with the Cayce Police Department and other local law enforcement authorities with whom we partner, and we do our best to work hand-in-hand with these agencies while still maintaining our own independent review process," it reads. "We appreciate these partnerships and look forward to continuing our collaborative work to ensure the safety and security of our students."

The City of Cayce provided an incident report, which identifies Drozdak as the complainant and identifies the student as male. The student’s age and the section of the narrative that describes the specifics of the incident are redacted.

Ashley Hunter, public information officer and media spokesperson for the City of Cayce, said the victim was held against their will during the incident.