Atlantic City, New Jersey — The principal of Atlantic City High School has been charged with official misconduct, child endangerment, and other offenses for allegedly neglecting to tell child welfare authorities when the mayor’s teenage daughter claimed she was being assaulted at home by her parents.
The Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office said Thursday that an eight-count indictment against Constance Days-Chapman was issued by a grand jury the day before.
The mayor’s wife is the superintendent of schools in Atlantic City and the high school principal’s supervisor.
Days-Chapman is good friends with Mayor Marty Small and his wife, La’Quetta, who were charged in April with repeatedly abusing and assaulting their teenage daughter. The Smalls and Days-Chapman, often known as Mandy, deny any wrongdoing.
“Mandy is innocent of the charges in the indictment,” her attorney, Lee Vartan, said. “We presented the prosecutor’s office with overwhelming evidence of her innocence. The prosecutor overlooked it, but the jury will not.
According to the prosecutor’s office, in December 2023, the Smalls’ then-15-year-old daughter informed Days-Chapman that she was suffering from constant migraines as a result of being abused by her parents at home.
The principal failed to alert state child welfare authorities as required by state law and district policy, according to the indictment.
On January 22, 2024, the girl told a school staff member that she had been emotionally and physically assaulted at home and had earlier mentioned the abuse to Days-Chapman.
Later that day, the school staff member spoke with Days-Chapman about the situation, and the principal disputed that the Smalls’ daughter had told her she was being abused.
However, Days-Chapman informed the school official that she would report the incident to New Jersey’s Division of Child Protection and Permanency.
Instead, she met Small and his wife in a car outside their home that evening.
The child protection organization informed authorities that no one from the Atlantic City schools had reported any alleged mistreatment of the Smalls’ daughter to them.
The prosecutor’s office announced accusations against the pair in April, alleging that Marty Small beat his daughter in the head many times with a broom, causing her to lose consciousness. He is also accused of repeatedly hitting his daughter in the legs, resulting in bruises, and threatening to toss her down a staircase and “smack the weave out of her head.”
+ There are no comments
Add yours