The daughter of Atlantic City's mayor allegedly told her principal that her parents were beating her months before their arrests. But Atlantic City High School Principal Constance Days-Chapman didn't report the alleged abuse and instead gave her friends, Mayor Marty Small and wife La'Quetta, a "heads up," according to prosecutors. The parents were charged in April with simple assault and endangering the welfare of a child. Days-Chapman, who served under public schools superintendent La'Quetta Small and as the mayor's campaign manager, has now been indicted by a grand jury on charges including child endangerment, official misconduct, and hindering the apprehension of another person, per WHYY.
The Smalls' daughter was 15 in December of last year when she told her principal that she was suffering headaches stemming from being hit by her parents, prosecutors say. Other school officials only learned of the alleged abuse toward the end of January when students were given mental health training and the teenager requested a counselor, per NBC 10. She then spoke up about having reported the abuse to Days-Chapman weeks earlier. The principal "denied that the student ever disclosed the abuse to her previously," but told school officials she would file a report with child protective services, prosecutors say.
That same day, Days-Chapman allegedly met with Marty and La'Quetta Small at their home. Prosecutors say the principal never actually followed through with her promise to report the alleged abuse to authorities, "as is required by statute and school policy," per NBC 10. Police say they only heard about it on Jan. 24 through a report from a "non-school entity." Days-Chapman denies wrongdoing. Her lawyer says he has "incontrovertible evidence" of his client's innocence. "The Prosecutor ignored it; the jury will not." (More on the abuse allegations here.)
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