NEW HANOVER COUNTY — Earlier this month, a New Hanover County courtroom contained a handful of people waiting for their case to be heard, but none were Brittany Kosch — formerly an Anderson Elementary School teacher now accused of assaulting two of her special needs students.
Kosch is charged with two misdemeanor counts of assaulting a minor under 12 years of age. The criminal summons alleges Kosch slapped one child on the head and neck and kicked another child in the stomach.
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Both incidents were reported on Sept. 19 and Kosch was put on administrative leave. The school district’s plan was to allow law enforcement to complete its investigation before NHCS conducted its own investigation to determine whether Kosch was still employable, but then Kosch resigned. Still, the district reported the investigation to the state, which oversees teaching licenses.
Kosch’s first court date was Dec. 3, but it was continued to February 4. Though Kosch had her attorney attend the hearing on her behalf, Tabitha Pinkston was. Her child, who has Level 2 autism, is one of the victims in the case, allegedly kicked by Kosch.
“Even today, it being two months since this happened, I can’t mention the word ‘school’ without him getting really upset,” Pinkston said. “He panics.”
Pinkston spoke with Port City Daily last month, wanting to provide the full story behind the case. She thought New Hanover County Schools failed her child and continues to try to smooth over a situation that could have been avoided.
“I want the truth out there,” Pinkston said.
Pinkston recounted her side of the narrative to PCD, starting with Sept. 19, the day she received a call from Anderson’s assistant principal, Anastasia Brown, notifying her child was assaulted by an educator. The time was 2:21 p.m., while Pinkston was waiting at the school to pick up her son.
“I tried to ask what happened and was given excuses of why she couldn’t tell me exactly what happened to him,” Pinkston said.
She pulled her car around to the front of the school, where her son was brought to her. Pinkston and her son’s communication is unique, since he is preverbal; she asked him if an adult had given him a “boo-boo,” to which he replied by smacking himself in the mouth. Pinkston said that it was his way of communicating that someone hurt him.
Meanwhile, Pinkston waited for someone from the school administration or district office to join her with an explanation at the school, telling PCD she tried calling human resources but failed to reach anyone for an hour. She said staff from the district office came to the school — including Chief Communications Officer Anita Baggie, Executive Director of Elementary Education Lauren Kefalonitis, Jennifer Geller, (Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources), and Title IX investigator John Henry. Though, Pinkston said no one was able to provide her with the circumstances surrounding the assault — who did it, what they did and when, and where they hurt her child.
Superintendent Chris Barnes arrived around 4 p.m., Pinkston recalled; while waiting, she called EMS. The crew examined her son and didn’t find emergent injuries but still recommended he be seen in the ER.
Pinkston described the unfolding events, and lack of knowledgeable communication, as “numbing.”
“It feels like when you’re having a nightmare, and you know you’re having a nightmare, and you know you need to wake up, but you can’t,” she said.
Barnes informed Pinkston the district had reported the incident to law enforcement and social services; soon after, she learned from the detective on the case the alleged assault occurred actually three days prior, on Sept. 16.
Barnes, who also agreed to speak with Port City Daily, said Tuesday he couldn’t remember the exact dates of each incident but confirmed the delay between the incidents and when they were reported by one of the teacher assistants in Kosch’s classroom.
“It was our expectation that we knew immediately; however, in talking with that employee, the first time, she wasn’t sure what she saw, and then the second time, obviously, she became more sure, and then really felt compelled to make sure she told somebody,” Barnes said.
North Carolina law designates educators as mandatory reporters of suspected abuse, but doesn’t set a specific timeframe for this reporting, only noting the report should be made “immediately or without unreasonable delay.”
Port City Daily asked if the TA was reprimanded in any way because of the late reporting; Barnes said commenting on that matter would violate personnel restrictions, but noted NHCS followed policy and took “appropriate steps.”
The reporting TA wasn’t the only one in the classroom though, as confirmed by the superintendent.
PCD asked why the second TA did not report the incident. Barnes said his understanding, as the TA was interviewed as part of law enforcement’s investigation, was that this person didn’t see the alleged assault occur.
Pinkston said knowing her son had been assaulted three days prior scared her more due to any untreated injuries that could have gone unaddressed. Per the suggestion from EMS, she did take her son to the ER; for six hours, doctors and nurses performed tests on her uncomfortable and uncooperative child. Pinkston said it took six people holding him down to obtain a blood sample.
The next morning she received a call from the assistant principal asking how the hospital visit went.
“I felt like it added insult to injury, first of all, to ask if we were OK because we’re obviously not OK,” she said. “And it was very obvious, immediately, that they just wanted to know if anything was discovered at the hospital.”
Pinkston said she told Barnes she only wanted to speak with him moving forward, telling Port City Daily she trusted him and viewed him as reliable and transparent.
“I don’t feel that anymore,” Pinkston said.
In the days following Sept. 19, the mother saw her son through nightmares, along with tears and panicked responses when she tried to ask him what happened. Amid that trouble, she also started receiving follow requests on social media from other educators in the district and views of her Facebook stories from random people. Pinkston, who clarified her son doesn’t share her last name, said she felt like information on his assault was being shared.
Pinkston didn’t learn it was Kosch who had allegedly assaulted her child until after the teacher resigned. It came as a surprise, sharing with PCD an email Kosch sent her just a week prior to the incident.
“Just wanted you to know how incredibly well [your son] is doing,” Pinkston read off to PCD from the email. “I know this is a huge transition for him, but he’s really transitioned so nicely. I shared with the county autism specialist how impressed I was with his ability to adapt and adjust to so many new things all at once, every day is better than the day before, and if this is just September, I can’t wait to see what he’s doing in June.”
Pinkston said she also pushed for Barnes to explain to the parents of Kosch’s other students what happened and why Kosch was no longer in the classroom.
Port City Daily asked Barnes how parents were notified; he replied he sat down with them “a week or two” after the incident.
“I wanted to talk to those parents directly, just because I wanted to get their opinion, make sure that they felt that we were processing things with them, that sort of thing,” Barnes said.
However, according to Pinkston, the meeting didn’t occur until the week of Oct. 20, after the story had made it into the media’s hands through a WHQR report on Oct. 14. PCD asked the district to confirm the date of this meeting but did not get a response by press.
Pinkston also said she wasn’t invited to attend the meeting, learning of it after the fact. The last time she talked with Barnes, Pinkston said, was Oct. 16; all communication since has been from Assistant Superintendent of Support Services Julie Varnam, mainly asking if Pinkston plans to send her son back to school. Pinkston told Port City Daily she hasn’t yet decided.
While the communication breakdown contributed to her disillusionment with the district, Pinkston noted what angered her just as much were social media reports of prior incidents of Kosch’s abuse that seemed to be ignored by the district.
Port City Daily spoke with one person claiming she witnessed another incident with Kosch in 2023; the person, a rotating TA at Anderson Elementary, said they would only speak on the condition of anonymity.
While serving as a TA substitute in Kosch’s classroom, this person claimed to have witnessed Kosch throw a block at a student, causing the child to fall back into a mirror. The TA reported Kosch for the incident, but shared that the child’s parents didn’t press charges and no police were involved.
According to the TA, Kosch was put on administrative leave for three days and then brought back; the TA then asked to be transferred. The TA said there was an interview at one school and didn’t get the position; when offered another opportunity, the TA submitted a resignation. They never went back into education.
Superintendent Barnes confirmed Kosch was put on administrative leave a couple of years ago — PCD asked for the specific dates but didn’t receive them — while under investigation for another assault claim. Barnes, who was head of human resources at the time, said the claims were “unfounded.” He told PCD he wasn’t able to share more details.
Ultimately, Pinkston told Port City Daily she hoped sharing her story would empower more parents and educators to speak up if they suspect dangerous activity.
As for the school district, Barnes said his administration was cooperating fully with law enforcement’s investigation.
In the midst of this case, NHCS has also been hit with another assault claim, this time from a teacher’s assistant. Last week, the school reported to parents a “physical altercation” between a TA and a student at Alderman Elementary School on Dec. 3. The notice said students may have witnessed the incident, as it took place in a common area, not a classroom.
“These are three separate situations, they all have their own variables, they all have their own impact,” Barnes said, noting there is no discernable pattern in the Alderman and Anderson incidents. “However, we are required to make sure that our students are safe in our building, period. There’s no real negotiation about that… however, we also know that this is a complex job. We have students who have different modalities, different modalities, different needs, different behaviors. However, we are still responsible to be adults, to be professionals, and we will, that is my minimum expectation.”
Port City Daily reached out to the other parent in Kosch’s criminal case and Kosch’s attorney; neither responded by press.
Reach journalist Brenna Flanagan at brenna@localdailymedia.com.
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