JONESBORO, Ark. — Last week, a school director and three of her employees appeared in court on allegations they allowed a ‘makeshift fight club’ to take place in Craighead County involving young children. Most details weren’t released, apart from Prosecuting Attorney Sonia F. Hagood describing the incident in open court as a “makeshift child fight club.”
This week, NEA Report obtained court documents about the case under a Freedom of Information Act request. The records detailed exactly what the prosecutor saw that outraged her.
The probable cause affidavit begins on April 17, 2025, when a parent reported that her child had been the victim of alleged child abuse at the school the child attended — ENGAGE School 1919 Craighead County Road 333. Detective David Bailey of the Craighead County Sheriff’s Office was assigned the case.
The description of the encounter begins with the victim being made to sit in the center of a circle of 18 other juvenile students while the teacher and founder of the school, Dr. Tracy Morrison, also sat in the circle. It isn’t clear what precipitated this, but the descriptions provided later on suggest it may have been intended as some form of discipline directed at the victim.
“Dr. Morrison could be seen on video and heard on audio during this incident,” the affidavit, signed by Detective David Bailey, said.
During this time, the record alleges that Dr. Morrison encouraged the juvenile students to mentally and physically abuse the victim. Dr. Morrison was seen putting her hands on the juvenile numerous times and hitting the child with an unknown object, the detective wrote. It is also alleged that she told other juvenile children that they could punch the juvenile victim sitting in the middle of the circle.
“Dr. Morrison verbally berated the child the whole time as she watched many of the other students sitting around the circle punch, kick, and choke the juvenile victim sitting inside the circle,” Detective Bailey wrote. “After the first juvenile choked the juvenile victim, Dr. Morrison can be seen giving the juvenile a high five, displaying her pleasure with the student’s actions.”
The alleged abuse went from physical to psychological when Dr. Morrison was heard asking the other juvenile students if they would like to say something they don’t like about the victim’s appearance, or if there was anything about the victim’s looks that they don’t like. Many students speak up, the affidavit said. Dr. Morrison can be seen hitting the victim with an unknown object during this time, and at one point, tells a student they can hit the victim in the private area.
“One student hits the victim pretty hard, and Dr. Morrison asked the student if the victim had ever made fun of them,” the detective wrote.
At the end of the incident, Dr. Morrison instructed the victim to apologize to all other students and informed them that she didn’t want this to be discussed again.
As this occurred, the detective observed employees Katherine Lipscomb, Michael Bean Jr., and Kristen Bell enter the classroom. All are mandated reporters, and all failed to intervene during the abuse.
The abusive incident lasted approximately 30 minutes.
The Department of Children and Family Services was assigned to look into the incident and were present at the school during the time the detective served the search warrant to obtain audio and video footage. The probable cause document stated that an individual went to numerous teachers and told them not to cooperate with the investigation, law enforcement, or DCFS. While in court, Prosecutor Hagood also mentioned witness tampering as a possible challenge.
A search warrant was obtained to take possession of the audio and video footage pertaining to the alleged incident. Detective Bailey observed that the juvenile victim was “allowed to be choked by other juvenile students on more than one occasion, and punched on other occasions, as Dr. Morrison observed and instructed the abuse to occur.”
This led the veteran detective to request an arrest warrant for Dr. Morrison and the other defendants. The defendants each face charges including 11 counts of permitting child abuse, a Class D felony; 18 counts of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile, a Class A misdemeanor; and first-degree failure to notify by a mandated reporter, a Class A misdemeanor.
For Morrison, bail was set at $250,000 cash or surety. Lipscomb’s bail was set at $100,000 cash or surety. Bean and Bell had bail set at $10,000 cash or surety. All four have been ordered to have no contact with the students or the school.
The next court date in the case is set for May 22. Morrison is represented by attorney Paul Ford. Bean and Bell are both represented by Bill Stanley.
All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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Governor? Attorney General? Where are you. Children dying at Ascent Children’s Health Care while a state senator is trying to have regulation removed. 20+ a year dying at the defunct Arkansas Continued Care “Hospital”. It was a rehab facility where annual deaths should be ZERO. Can anybody who wants to start a hospital or child care facility and milk Medicaid and Medicare while endangering the lives of those so unfortunate as to fall into their clutches? Governor, Attorney General, where are you. Or how about some ambulance-chasing lawyers and “journalists” who want to make a name for themselves?