Authorities have since charged Brian Vollhardt, then-principal of Wolters Elementary School, with child abuse and menacing in connection with the incident involving the juvenile, who has not been publicly identified, court records show. The misdemeanor charge comes after the Fresno Unified School District released a copy of the June 7 video Thursday. District officials said Vollhardt and staff members were “working with an upset student” in the school cafeteria that June morning. It’s not clear what happened before the video started. “Instead of de-escalating the situation, the former principal chose to aggressively push the student,” Superintendent Bob Nelson said Thursday at a news conference. He referred to the behavior as “disgusting” and inexcusable. Vollhardt could not be reached by The Washington Post. His attorney, Roger Wilson, told The Post that his client is reviled by the 30-second video, adding that the child was known to “show up all the time.” “He [Vollhardt] he is a respected educator and this is completely out of character,” Wilson told The Post. Anne Frank, the boy’s guardian who refers to him as her son, told KFSN that her child is autistic. Frank added that the video would not have been made public if not for two weeks ago, when she complained to authorities that no charges had been filed months after the incident. “My son was pushed hard by this principal who was supposed to protect him,” Frank told the local station. Fresno Police Chief Paco Balderrama acknowledged that his department did not initially prioritize the case. “We cannot change the fact that our process failed to properly categorize the incident as an ‘active case,’ and there was an unnecessary and unacceptable delay in our process,” Balderrama told The Post in an email. “…I should have been informed of the incident much earlier.” Nelson said the boy was not injured. The school district suspended Vollhardt on June 8, Nelson said during the press conference. He resigned once the district disciplined him, Nelson said. Vollhardt, who became the vice principal of the Golden Plains Unified School District, was placed on leave Thursday after the news conference, Martin Macias, the school district’s superintendent, said in an email to The Post. Balderrama said he apologized to the child’s guardian on Friday. “My standards and expectations for the Fresno Police Department are much higher than what was revealed last week,” Balderrama added. “We must and will do better because the children of our community need us.” Vollhardt is scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 26, records show.
