Arkansas school director sentenced for role as ‘ringleader’ in child fight club

An Arkansas school director  was sentenced to 30 days in jail, 120 days of house arrest with electronic monitoring and nine years of probation after prosecutors accused her of being the “ringleader” of a makeshift child fight club.

Mary Tracy Morrison, 51, the owner and director of The Delta Institute for the Developing Brain and the Engage program in Jonesboro, pleaded guilty Monday to one count of permitting child abuse and four counts of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile, according to KAIT.

The judge also prohibited her from working with children in any professional capacity and ruled she must surrender her occupational therapy license and any other related licenses, complete a mental health assessment and follow all recommended treatments.

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Morrison was arrested in April 2025 after a mother told the Craighead County Sheriff’s Office that her teenage son reported being mentally and physically abused while he was at the school.

Video footage that deputies obtained through a search warrant revealed Morrison had “instructed the child to sit on the floor while being surrounded on the outside of a circle by 18 other juvenile students and Dr. Morrison,” according to a probable cause affidavit, KAIT reported.

The affidavit said that Morrison told the other students to put their hands on the child in the center and hit the child with an “unknown object.”

As Morrison verbally berated the child, another student was seen kicking and choking the child.

After the alleged incident, Morrison was observed “giving the juvenile a high five, displaying her pleasure with the student’s actions,” according to the affidavit.

The incident lasted 30 minutes and featured a teacher directing a student to strike a classmate “in the private area,” deputies said.

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Following the incident, Morrison “instructed the victim to apologize to all other students” and told the students to never discuss what had happened again, the document stated.

Three other school employees — Michael Bean, 38, Kristin Bell, 36, and Kathrine Lipscomb, 45, were also arrested in connection with the abuse.

Fox News Digital could not immediately reach The Delta Institute for the Developing Brain or the Engage program for comment because no public or operational email address was listed for either organization.