This week, Polk County Sheriff’s Office Safe Schools deputies arrested 39-year-old Ivy Mechelle Smith of Lakeland for battery on a school employee, disrupting a school function, and trespassing on school grounds.
According to local police, Smith arrived at Medulla Elementary School (850 School House Road) in Lakeland and once in the main office area at around 11:00am, where she began yelling and cursing at the school staff. She was asked to calm down and stop cursing as there were several students nearby.
Authorities said Smith was upset because her child had received discipline referrals from a teacher and wanted her child removed from the teacher’s classroom. A school administrator heard the disruption and approached Smith. Smith demanded that her child be placed in another class. The administrator asked Smith to calm down, stating they would arrange a meeting to discuss her child’s behavior and the potential to be placed in another class. Smith then told the school administrator she was there to retrieve her child and walked past school staff toward the classrooms.
According to reports, the school administrator followed Smith, telling her to stay in the main office and follow the proper procedures to check her child out of class. Smith continued to yell at the school administrator. She then pushed the school administrator and attempted to open a set of locked hallway doors.
When Smith realized she could not open the locked doors, she left the school building and jumped over a gate to flee from the school.
Smith then called the PCSO Emergency Communications Center. She told the Telecommunicator she was at a Central Florida CVS in Lakeland and would wait for a deputies.
“There is a right way and a wrong way to present concerns to school administration,” said Sheriff Grady Judd. “This is an example of how to go about it the wrong way. Our teachers already have the difficult task of educating our children, and we will never allow anyone to come on our school campuses in this manner, assaulting staff and disrupting classes. That conduct is a guaranteed trip to the county jail.”
Police said Smith was transported to the Polk County Jail and later released after paying a bond.
