Former preschool teacher admits to biting child, avoids jail time

A former Bell-Whitley Head Start teacher, who allegedly bit and spanked a 15-month-old student in August, has pled guilty to amended charges.

Ginger Dawn Hackler, 35, was originally charged with two counts of third-degree criminal abuse of a child under the age of 12 years old.

On March 5, she pled guilty to two amended charges of fourth-degree assault.

In exchange for the guilty plea, District Judge Fred White sentenced her to a 12-month jail sentence that will be probated for two years on the condition Hacker enrolls in and completes anger management, according to court records.

White also ordered her to pay court costs.

"After lengthy negotiation with the commonwealth, we finally reached an agreement that all parties found acceptable that allowed my client to avoid jail time," noted Hackler’s attorney, Jonathon Jones. "It is an outcome everyone can live with I believe."

Whitley County Attorney Bob Hammons echoed similar sentiments and noted that all the parties involved agreed to the resolution of the case.

This included the Department of Community-Based Services (social services), the mother of the victim, the Williamsburg Police Department, Bell-Whitley Community Action Agency and the Office of the Inspector General.

"I think everybody involved was pleased with the results," Hammons noted.

Hammons said he thought that the requirement for anger management "fit the circumstances."

"I’m a believer in not only trying to get people punished but in getting to what also caused this."

A Bell-Whitley Community Action Agency Inc. spokesperson said in an e-mail Tuesday morning that Hackler was terminated from the agency on Oct. 1.

The incident allegedly happened about 10 a.m. on Aug. 19.

Hackler was in a care taking role at Bell Whitley Early Head Start Center when she disciplined a 15-month-old minor child by allegedly "biting the child in the left arm leaving teeth impressions and bruising consistent with a human bite," Williamsburg Police Detective Bobby wrote in the arrest warrant.

Hackler also allegedly spanked the minor child, Freeman wrote in the warrant.

Williamsburg Police Chief Wayne Bird said that social services reported the matter to Williamsburg police on Aug. 21 after launching their own investigation.

"They interviewed her. She admitted to them that she bit the child and that she spanked the child. It was witnessed by three other staff members there at the school," Bird said. "Common sense tells you that you don’t bite a child. It is against the law."
Bird said there are state regulations for head starts and day care centers, which prohibit disciplining a child and instead call for redirection.

"The child is teething. A child’s natural reaction when they are teething is to bite something," Bird said. "It is my understanding that the child did not actually bite another child. According to her statement, the child was making a biting motion and she bit the child as a form of punishment I guess."

Bird said that investigating a head start worker for biting a child was a first for him.

"She admitted she did it. Initially, I don’t think she believed that she did anything wrong," Bird said. "According to Detective Freeman, when he transported her to the jail, she was more upset that somebody turned her in," Bird said. "Hopefully by now, she has realized that you just don’t bite a child."

Hammons said that in the 30 years he has been a prosecutor, he has never encountered a case quite like this.

"It was different," he noted.