HOW VIDEOS HELPED ME UNCOVER ABUSE AT AN ARKANSAS PRIVATE SCHOOL Mary“ Tracy” Morrison ordered students to scrub floors and urged them to attack a classmate.
Few records exist of incidents at The Delta Institute for the Developing Brain, a private school with little transparency. I pieced together what happened.
by Jennifer Smith Richards This story was originally published by ProPublica.
The Delta Institute for the Developing Brain was set back off a country road in a white colonial house— such an atypical location that I first drove right by it, unsure that it was a school. I turned around, went to the door, introduced myself as a reporter and asked for a tour.
I knew a student had been assaulted in this Arkansas school a year earlier because of some news reports based on a detective’ s description. Once inside, I noted the preteens tucked into hammock chairs or sitting on the floor. I noted the cameras mounted in the foyer and classrooms, a reminder that, in order to fully understand what had happened, I’ d need to see the video that had captured the assault.
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