By LEONARD GRAY

NORCO – The 13-year-old, undersized boy came home nauseous, and his mother was concerned. But when she saw the black-and-blue marks on his backside, she was furious.

Dianne Jaufre’s son, Ryan, had been disciplined by Cpl. Clyde Taylor, a resource officer at the St. Charles Parish Court School in Boutte, leaving the swollen and discolored bruises.

Taylor, a 15-year veteran of the department, has been placed on disciplinary leave awaiting the outcome of the investigation launched.

Ryan Jaufre of Norco was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder as a preschooler. Considered a disciplinary problem all his school career, he was sentenced to Court School by 29th Judicial District Judge Kirk Granier after an incident last year involving shooting pebbles at a girl with a slingshot.

The girl’s mother filed aggravated battery charges, which were reduced to simple battery, and Ryan began at Court School in the fall.

However, on Jan. 14, when Jaufre dropped by the school to drop off his medication, they visited briefly with Taylor and she complained he had been “a real handful” over the weekend.

According to Jaufre, Taylor pointed significantly at his “paddle,” a sawed-off piece of lumber two feet in length, three inches in width and an inch thick with one end wrapped in tape for a more secure grip. “He had been whipped with it before and it left no marks,” she said.

“Assume the position,” Taylor reportedly said to Ryan, and as Jaufre left to deliver her son’s Ritalin to the office at the far end of the building, she could hear her son’s shrieks at his paddling.

Five strokes he received, the last of which was partially blocked by Ryan’s hand, causing an injury to his thumb. A sixth blow came as Ryan was allowed to depart, smacking him on one thigh.

“While I sat in the office at the opposite end of the building, I could hear it,” she said. “Everybody heard it.”

Jaufre said she readily consented to normal spankings, “but I never signed anything.” What’s more, the policy is for such punishment to be administered by the principal, never the uniformed resource officer.

When Ryan arrived at home, he was sick to his stomach and she took him to Ochsner Hospital for examination, where the bruises were looked at by the medical staff.

On Jan. 21, Jaufre, a former secretary at the St. Charles Parish Correctional Center, spoke to Detective Joe Lawler, who in turn told his supervisor, Detective Bobby Dale, head of the Juvenile Division. “I’m sorry, Dianne,” Lawler reportedly said. “I can’t let this go.”

As attorney Stephen Rue put it in a press release: “The St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office has reason to be concerned as they had an injured child and the person that allegedly created the injuries was one of their own.”

Since the incident, Ryan has not returned to Court School. She is seeking either a tutor from the school district or permission to home-school. Jaufre said her son has been treated poorly by area schools for years.

Once, she claimed, as a first-grader at St. Rose Primary, he was locked in a “black box” on a urine-soaked carpet for a time. When she complained, the “black box” was removed.

At Norco 4-6 Elementary, where Ryan normally attended school, he was in a behavior-disordered class, lumped in with children in first-to-third grades, mixed in with children from grades 4-6.

“I have begged for assistance,” she continued. “I’m worried about his future as an adult. He’s just a nervous wreck.”

Her attorney, Stephen Rue, stressed she is not planning to sue anyone over the incident. “She wants to make sure proper actions are taken and to alert the proper authorities.”

Superintendent Dr. Rodney Lafon admitted Jaufre asked Taylor to discipline Ryan, but said Taylor stepped beyond his role. “The principal didn’t know until five days later,” he said, “Then the sheriff took the initiative to open the investigation.”

Taylor has been a resource officer for six years without complaints.

Lafon added, “I’m very comfortable with how quickly the sheriff handled it.”

Jaufre concluded, “I want to make sure it doesn’t happen to my child again or to any other child.”