The family of an autistic teen facing expulsion after he was found guilty of harassing his teacher has accused Georgia school of trying to brand him a criminal.
AJ Mitchell, 13, was found guilty in January of harassing his former teacher, Jaymie Konvicka, after bombarding her with hang-up calls and sending her explicit texts in the days before she contacted police, according to Atlanta News First.
He and his family are heading to court on Wednesday, where a Fayette County judge will decide whether the teen is expelled or has his record wiped clean.
'I've never seen the level of intentionality to remove a child from the district,' the family's attorney Nicole Hull said, according to the outlet.
A crowd of family and friends packed a recent school board meeting, pleading for the district to reverse course and accusing officials of failing the teen by ignoring his disability.
'The worse case scenario was him telling his therapist he wanted to unalive. He said he wanted to kill himself,' Oyin Mitchell, his mother, told the outlet.
AJ, who has autism and other learning disabilities, sometimes has difficulty understanding social boundaries.
Hull backed the family’s argument, saying the 13-year-old’s case is proof of what she called a 'school-to-prison pipeline,' where students are 'graduating directly into our adult criminal justice system.'
AJ Mitchell, 13, who has autism, was found guilty of harassing his former teacher in January
Teacher Jaymie Konvicka called authorities in January after AJ repeatedly placed hang-up calls to her and sent explicit texts
AJ's family, including his mother, are accusing school officials of failing the teen by ignoring his disability
A Fayette County judge will decide whether AJ is expelled or has his record wiped clean on Wednesday
Georgia has an incarceration rate of roughly 968 per 100,000 people - the highest in the United States and higher than in any other free democratic nation, according to a 2023 report by the Prison Policy Initiative.
Many of them are students with special needs, according to the National Council on Disability, who are more likely to be disciplined, suspended and pushed into the justice system.
By 2015, an estimated 85 percent of children in juvenile detention were reported to have disabilities.
The court battle began to unravel earlier this year after Konvicka called authorities over unwanted contact from AJ, though his family says the teacher was fully aware of his struggles.
Body camera footage revealed a sheriff’s deputy responding to her home and asking her about filing criminal charges against the teen, according to Atlanta News First.
'Especially a juvenile with autism... Do you want to try to press charges here or do you just want documentation?' the police officer asked.
Konvicka eventually filed criminal charges against her former student, while the district moved ahead with efforts to officially expel AJ from school.
Records, however, showed that Fayette County school officials waited over three weeks to tell AJ's parents about the incident, with Hull insisting they were never given a chance to intervene before police were called.
The family's attorney Nicole Hull said that AJ's case is proof of what she called a 'school-to-prison pipeline'
Georgia has an incarceration rate of roughly 968 per 100,000 people, the highest in the US
By 2015, an estimated 85 percent of children in juvenile detention were reported to have disabilities
Body camera footage revealed that Konvicka said she wanted to file criminal charges against AJ rather than document a complaint
'My husband and I knew none of this,' AJ's mother told the outlet. 'They had already had the charges filed. Everything was done.'
During the heated board meeting, Latrice Mitchell, AJ's aunt, declared: 'This situation has devastated our family.'
'Instead of preparing for his future, AJ is now being forced to defend himself in a court battle initiated by the school district,' she added.
AJ's mother has taken to Facebook with increasingly vocal advocacy, sharing a video describing the day a sheriff knocked on her door and her son asked why police were there.
She said that while they weren’t there to arrest him, officials arrived with documents that included a line underlined in red reading, 'Serve the child.'
'What you saw wasn't a moment- it's been years in the making. Decisions. Silence. Systems that should have protected a child but didn't,' she wrote in another post shared Sunday.
'Court is next. And no matter what, we keep moving forward. If you've ever wondered what advocacy really costs-this is it.'
AJ was originally charged with sexual impropriety and harassment involving a different teacher in connection with the same incident, but those charges were later dismissed, according to Atlanta News First.
On Wednesday, a Fayette County judge will decide whether to expunge AJ's school disciplinary record.
After that, the teenage boy is scheduled to return to court to hear his punishment following a guilty plea to the harassment charge.
Instead of probation or a tougher punishment, his attorney plans to ask the judge for community service and an essay requirement.