Metro Atlanta mom says school employee grabbed 13-year-old son by the neck until he passed out

ATLANTA — A metro Atlanta mom claims that a school employee grabbed her 13-year-old son around the neck to the point that he passed out.

The school district is now looking into the incident.

Channel 2′s Tom Jones talked to Cynteria Lomnick, who said that for a couple of months, she heard nothing from the school district. When she had her attorney send a demand letter, she finally learned that an investigation is underway.

Lomnick said that on May 3, she got the worst call a parent could receive from Crawford Long Middle School.

“My son passed out and he’s unconscious,” Lomack said. “And at that moment my heart started beating fast. I started crying.”

Lomnick raced to the school, where the EMS was tending to her son, who was crying and had an ice pack on his face.

After he got home, Lomnick said a classmate told him -- and her -- what really happened and her son’s memory came back.

He said he was running in class and the school employee grabbed him.

“He said, ‘He grabbed me from behind my neck and choked me,’” Lomnick said.

Her lawyer, Kianna Chennault, said the family finally got a notice that an investigation is underway.

“They acknowledged an incident has taken place and the teacher has been alleged of doing wrong,” Chennault said.

Atlanta Public Schools said the incident is a pending legal matter and that it can’t comment at this time.

Lomnick said she and her son deserve justice.

“He shouldn’t be in the classroom at all,” she said. “He shouldn’t be around children at all.”

Jones talked to his sources with APS, who said the child passed out on his own and the coach did nothing wrong.

That demand letter the family’s attorney sent is asking for $1 million and also asks that the district train staff better in de-escalation techniques.