Lawyer disputes charge that school employee choked student
Posted: May 22, 2017 - 5:35am

RANKIN (AP) — The lawyer for a Pennsylvania school worker charged with assault says his client did not choke a 13-year-old student, but lifted him off the ground by his chin.

The attorney told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that Joseph Golden III, a behavioral specialist at an alternative school in Rankin, was using an approved restraint method April 12 when he was captured on surveillance video carrying the student down the hallway. The superintendent of the school district said it was not an approved restraint that he was aware of.

Golden's attorney says his client was simply trying to do his job and the student was not injured.

Golden is charged with simple assault and endangering a child. He has been suspended from his job and the superintendent has recommended his firing.
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Information from: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, http://www.post-gazette.com