A paraprofessional at Len Lastinger Primary School has been relieved of her duties after she was charged with aggravated assault. Now, according to the human resources director for the Tift County School system, criminal background checks on certified employees will include all background information from law enforcement and not just arrests and convictions.

Kevin Dobard, the human resources director for the Tift County school system, said Friday that Kim Turner Howard, 51, was initially placed on leave without pay until he and other administrators could evaluate the incident.

Howard was arrested and charged April 22 with aggravated assault with a knife. According to the incident report, officers responded after midnight to a Duggan Street address to reports that a man had been cut on his hand. The man, 44-year-old Anthony Mason, told officers who arrived that he had just gotten off work and that he and his friend and co-worker had gone to a party in the Phillipsburg area and that when he returned home to his residence, his girlfriend was waiting in her car for him.

Mason told the officer that Howard drove him around and they began arguing. He said they pulled over at Matt Wilson Elementary School and Howard pulled out a knife and started trying to cut him. He said he grabbed the knife and, in doing so, cut his hand on the blade. Mason told the officers that he was scared, got out of Howard’s car and ran back to his residence. He then dialed E-911.

When officers arrived at Howard’s home, one of them knocked on her door and asked her if she would walk with him to the front of her house. An officer asked her if she had seen Mason that night and she affirmed that she had. She told the officer that she and Mason had gotten into an argument. She denied pulling a knife on Mason and told the officer that she did hit him with her car door as he jumped out of the vehicle. Officers wrote that Howard had blood on her hands and arms.

Photographs were taken as evidence. According to the report, the investigation didn’t reveal that any substance abuse contributed to the incident.

Dobard said criminal background checks are run on all certified employees, including paraprofessionals, upon their hiring and every five years after. Now, he said, not only arrests but any incidents as recorded by the Tift County Sheriff’s Office and the Tifton Police Department officers will be included as information that accompanies the background checks.

Howard was first hired by the school system in July of 2003 as a substitute teacher, Dobard said. She became a paraprofessional in July of 2004 and has worked at Len Lastinger ever since.

Dobard said he became aware of Howard’s arrest when Len Lastinger Principal Kim Ezekiel brought it to his attention shortly after the system’s Spring break ended.

“I then obtained a copy of the police report,” Dobard said. “I also obtained reports of prior incidents (regarding Howard) from the sheriff’s office.”

Dobard said Howard was placed on leave with pay until a decision was made to terminate her employment.

“When we read the police reports, I called her in and explained to her that, because of her actions and past incidents involved in this relationship, that we felt that we would no longer require her services in the school system.

“She was in agreement and voluntarily resigned.”

In late March, Len Lastinger paraprofessional Vivian Hightower was released from her duties after school administrators and Board of Education officials learned that she had allegedly bitten a young student on the finger on Jan. 10. During an investigation of Hightower’s prior criminal history, it was revealed that she had been arrested in 2006 and charged with aggravated assault. According to that incident report, Hightower was holding a machete and threatening a 23-year-old when the Tift County Sheriff’s deputy responding arrived at the young woman’s residence.

Len Lastinger Primary School Principal Dr. Kim Ezekiel maintains that she first learned on Jan. 22 of the Jan. 10 incident involving Hightower biting the finger of a kindergarten student in the car pick-up area of the school. Dobard said the passage of time between the incident and when it was reported by a witness employed by the school system delayed the investigation and ultimate one-week suspension without pay. After her suspension, Hightower again served as a paraprofessional at Len Lastinger. She was then re-assigned a position at the school system’s bus shop before her employment was ultimately terminated.