Canon City private school director arrested
A man who runs a school for troubled kids in Canon City is accused of assaulting some students there and police say it's not the first time he's faced these kinds of allegations.
32 year-old Randall Hinton was arrested on charges of
assault in the third degree, false imprisonment and reckless endangerment.
Employees say Hinton is the Director of the
Royal Gorge Academy.
An employee says Hinton forced a teenage girl to
lie face down on a floor for six hours on December 30, 2006.
Hinton is also accused of
injuring the girl's wrists and not allowing her to receive medical attention. "And the allegation was that Mr. Hinton
physically restrained a female student at the academy and that that student did suffer physical injuries from that restraint," says Captain Allen Cooper, Canon City Police Department.
Hinton's attorney tells News First the girl was violent and was hitting herself in the head with a stapler and tried to staple her own hand. He says her parents support the school, saying "her parents have been supportive of the Academy.
The parents have notified the Academy that they're not surprised by her actions, that this young lady does have some problems."
According to the arrest report, a school employee says there's a policy of
"no physical contact" between staff and students. But at least one staff member told police he saw Hinton
grab a male student by the back of the head and smacked the student's face against the floor a couple of times, causing the student to bleed. Canon City Police also searched the internet and found similar allegations against Hinton at other private schools, including one called Tranquility Bay in Jamaica.
Some students told Canon City Police that they were told they'd be sent to Tranquility Bay if they don't shape up. They also claim they were told that American laws don't apply to kids in Tranquility Bay and that pepper spray is used there.
Hinton's attorney says the allegation's are not true. :roll:
Posted By: James Jarman (Updated: 1/10/2007 5:36:14 PM)
His mugshot can be viewed at the link
http://www.koaa.com/news/view.asp?ID=6271Someone who knows how to do that can post it up.