CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A suspended Anson County High School teacher said she slapped a student only after he had shoved and threatened her.
Patricia Frost has been suspended since the incident back on June 5.
Sitting in the office of her Charlotte lawyer, Josh Van Kampen, Frost said she stopped the student--18-year-old Johnathan Smith--and told him to pull up his sagging pants.
"I said you need to pull up your pants and he shoved me and said, 'Get the "F" out of my face,'" she said.
Frost then followed the student until he stopped.
"He came towards me and my goal was to get him away from me and I did hit him on the side of his head and he turned around and smacked me on the side of my head," she said.
The student filed criminal charges against Frost, accusing her of simple assault.
Frost filed her own charges against Smith, accusing him of assault on a female and communicating threats.
"He put his hands on me and he repeatedly told me he was going to "F" me up," Frost said.
Frost has taught for 13 years in Anson County schools. Before that, she was a decorated Command Sergeant Major in the Army where she served in Desert Storm and Desert Shield.
Now she is suspended from her job and has been waiting since June for the Anson County Superintendent of Schools--Dr. Greg Firn--to decide if she will be allowed back into a classroom.
Firn told NewsChannel 36 the investigation is continuing and he is "trying to verify and validate the interviews with all the witnesses."
Said Frost, "It has been discouraging to me but I serve almighty God and things are going to work out. I believe that."
Firn said he will make a decision on Frost's future by the end of August.
