--- description: Washington D.C. police are investigating after a parent at KIPP DC Spring Academy punched a 7-year-old child inside the charter school title: 7-Year-Old Student Punched by a Parent Inside Washington D.C. School image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # 7-Year-Old Student Punched by a Parent Inside Washington D.C. School by [Mahita Gajanan](/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Oct 24, 2016 10:15 PM CUT by [Mahita Gajanan](/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Oct 24, 2016 10:15 PM CUT Washington D.C. police are investigating after a parent at KIPP DC Spring Academy punched a 7-year-old child inside the charter school. Surveillance footage from the school shows an adult punching a child in the school hallway on Wednesday. The child, John Mclean, told his mother he was assaulted by a classmate’s parent. “I was in the hallway, the day was on Wednesday, and then somebody punched me in my stomach,” he told [ABC News WJLA](http://wjla.com/news/local/police-are-investigating-after-a-child-was-punched-by-a-parent-inside-a-charter-school "undefined"). The video shows the adult walking out of the building after the punch as John is slumped over. Lena Mclean, John’s mother, said she has had “positive interactions” with the parent and that she didn’t understand why he would hurt her child. “You don’t bully a child, you don’t torment a child,” she said. “I’ll feel much better when he is locked up.” The school sent a letter to parents on Friday, saying the “isolated incident occurred on campus between a student and a family acquaintance who was also a Spring Academy parent.” “The health and safety of our students, teachers, and staff remains our number one priority and we will continue to work closely with the police to ensure that students and staff are safe at school,” the letter said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4543708/parent-student-punch-police/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4543708/parent-student-punch-police/"},"headline":"7-Year-Old Student Punched by a Parent Inside Washington D.C. School","datePublished":"2016-10-24T22:15:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T01:23:39.452Z","description":"Surveillance footage from the school shows an adult punching a child in the school hallway","url":"https://time.com/4543708/parent-student-punch-police/","keywords":["Crime","Education","Washington D.C."],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mahita Gajanan","jobTitle":"Gajanan is an editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4543708/parent-student-punch-police/","name":"7-Year-Old Student Punched by a Parent Inside Washington D.C. School"}}]}] ```