Rome teacher Kasey Green accused of putting children in headlocks

A Floyd County teacher is behind bars for alleging putting a student in a headlock and then conspiring to destroy an iPhone belonging to another student who recorded the incident.

Police said Kasey Christian Green, 32, a 7th grade teacher at Rome Middle School, put students in headlocks on at least two separate occasions.

Gary Jones told his parents that Green was physically and verbally abusive with students. He told CBS46 that the teacher once pushed a desk into his chest with enough force to leave a bruise.

That's when Gary's parents told him if anything like that ever happened again, he should record video of it with this iPhone. So when he witnessed Green put another student in a headlock, he recorded video as instructed by his parents. Then he told police that the teacher instructed a couple other students to steal his phone and destroy it so there would be no evidence.

Gary's father later found the phone by using an app to locate it with GPS. The phone had been shattered.

”It had been buried under a tree, but we could hear it pinging, said Gary's mother, Desiree Jones.

Police weren't able to recover all the video, but found enough evidence to recommend criminal charges. Police said the headlock didn't appear to be good-natured.

”Based on what we uncovered, it didn't appear they were playing. No, said Rome Police Lt. Gary Pace.

Desiree Jones said her son had worried it would be his word against the teacher's, but police believed Gary because he's ”a great kid and ”a straight honor roll student with no behavioral issues. She said Gary plays soccer, is an accomplished musician, and stays out of trouble.

Gary has since transferred schools, but said he still likes most of his teachers at Rome Middle School and he hasn't let the ordeal affect his love for leaing.

”Despite some incidents that may happen, I'm leaing and it's gonna help me become a better person, said Gary.

Green is charged with cruelty to a child in the second degree, criminal damage to property, both felonies, and misdemeanor counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, being a party to the crime of theft by taking and disrupting a public. She is being held in the Floyd County Jail on a $6,500 bond.