BERNE — An incident where Cole Warnken, a sixth-grader at Berne-Knox-Westerlo Elementary School, says the father of another student shook him has led Cole’s father to question why parents are allowed on campus during the day.

Matthew Warnken said his 10-year-old son was physically shaken by and yelled at by the parent of another student on the morning of Friday, April 27 (see related letter to the editor). The school said an investigation shows no child was touched.

“Basically, on Friday, a parent made it to the breakfast line of the cafeteria,” said Ben Amey, a public information specialist for the district. The Enterprise called both Elementary School Principal Annette Landrey and Superintendent Timothy Mundell, but did not receive a direct response from either of them.

Cole Warnken said on Tuesday that, a week ago, a friend of his hit another student on the head with a smartphone during recess at school. The boy who was hit started to cry, but didn’t talk to his teacher about it, Cole said. Cole knew the boy who was hit from his fifth grade class last year.

On Friday morning, Cole got off the school bus to get breakfast at the cafeteria in the elementary school. He was waiting with his friend from recess and two other friends. It was a little after 7 a.m. Cole said the cafeteria doors were closed, and, even though there is supposed to be a hall monitor and someone at the front desk, neither were there at that time.

The father of the boy his friend had hit walked in and began to yell at Cole and shake him, Cole said, telling Cole to go to the principal’s office.

“He’s not allowed to go down in the hallway,” said Cole. He said that no adults are allowed there, and added he thought the father was taking advantage of the fact no other adults were around to stop him. Cole said he thought the father wanted to talk to them about what had happened to his son and bring them to the office.

Cole said the boy his friend hit came up to his father and told him he had the wrong person, and that it was Cole’s friend, not Cole, who had hit him with the phone. The father grabbed his friend by the hood of his sweatshirt and started to pull him toward the principal’s office, said Cole.

Cole said his friend wasn’t hurt, and he and his friends didn’t say anything to the teachers after that, but he did go to the principal’s office at lunchtime. Cole said he couldn’t speak to her because she was in a meeting.

“She’s never there when I want to talk to her,” he said. “She’s always in a meeting.”

He said he wasn’t scared when he was being shaken, but kept thinking, “I want to punch this guy.” He didn’t.

The staff member posted in the school lobby to sign in visitors had left to retrieve a walkie talkie, said Amey, and, while the staffer was away, the father walked down toward the cafeteria.

“That was a mistake; it shouldn’t have happened,” Amey said, adding that the district is reviewing its protocol and has spoken with those involved to make sure that it won’t happen again.

Amey said that the district determined from security footage of the incident and from speaking with eyewitnesses that there is no evidence that the parent attacked any students. The video shows a parent talking to a group of students, and the eyewitnesses confirmed that this is what occurred, said Amey.

He added that the parent who brought the matter to their attention viewed the video as well. He declined to identify anyone involved in the incident.

Warnken said his wife saw the taped footage and said it was poor quality and recorded in intervals, missing the part where their son was shaken.

Warnken said that parents regularly visit their children during the day at BKW during recess, lunch periods, or in the morning during school breakfast.

“Any day I walk in, it’s mobbed,” said Warnken. He said that, while visitors sign in to visit for special activities like a school play, parents often are buzzed in by an attendant at the door without signing in or identifying themselves.

“Any parent in the school building has to sign in first,” said Amey. He said he himself has to sign in when visiting the campus.

Amey said that the father who spoke to the students apologized to the district and was told that what he did was not tolerated and that he would be barred from campus if he did something similar again.

“I’m going to believe my child before anything those people say,” said Warnken, in response to Amey’s remarks.

Warnken said he attempted to press charges against the father, but that an Albany County Sheriff’s deputy told him this couldn’t be done if marks weren’t left on his son, giving proof of an attack. Warnken also said his wife spoke with the elementary school principal and had been trying to speak with the district superintendent.

Pauline Lawyer, Cole Warnken’s grandmother, remarked that her sister, a retired school aid, had told her not even staff could touch students.