Greenville School District Superintendent Leeson Taylor has been placed on administrative leave during an investigation of the district's handling of a video showing a teacher abusing a special needs student.
Greenville School District Superintendent Leeson Taylor has been placed on administrative leave.

Greenville School District Superintendent Leeson Taylor has been placed on paid leave during an investigation of the district’s handling of a video showing a teacher abusing a special needs student.

Greenville school board member Kimberly Merchant said the decision was made by the board Thursday night. The board also hired an attorney to conduct a private investigation regarding how the district handled a video showing a teacher dragging a special needs student by her hair.

“We are engaging in an independent investigation of what occurred in relation to the incident and how it was handled by the district. So we felt it was best to put him (Taylor) on leave until that investigation is complete,” Merchant said.

Greenville School District spokesperson Everett Chinn declined to comment on the board’s decision Friday morning.

Merchant also confirmed the teacher shown in the video is no longer employed with the district.

The board expects to release further information about the teacher during a special meeting on Monday.

“As information comes to a point where we can share it, we will. I know it’s frustrating but we have to be really conscious about what we share,” she explained.

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Kate Royals is a Jackson native and became Mississippi Today’s first community health editor in January 2022. She returned to Mississippi Today as the lead education reporter after serving in the same capacity from 2016 to 2018. Prior to that, she was a reporter for the Clarion-Ledger covering education and state government. She won awards for her investigative work, including stories about the state’s campaign finance laws and prison system. She was a news producer at MassLive in Springfield, Mass., after graduating from Louisiana State University’s Manship School of Mass Communications with a master’s degree in communications.