BROOKSVILLE, Fla. – When Department of Children and Families informed Vanessa Mauk-Doane that a teacher dragged her 6-year-old daughter with down syndrome by her hair at school she was livid.

“I shouldn’t have to find out from DCF that my daughter was allegedly battered at school,” the mother told WTSP shortly after learning of the incident in May. “It’s very heartbreaking to find out that somebody would do that, especially a child with special needs.”

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After a month long investigation by DCF and the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office, Mauk-Doane’s anger is boiling over. The State Attorney’s office refuses to prosecute the teacher, who remains unnamed, and the school district plans to keep the educator employed after a five-day unpaid suspension and required behavioral training, according to the news site.

“I was appalled,” Mauk-Doane said. “I don’t understand how pulling a child’s hair is not considered child abuse, especially when it’s a teacher.”

Authorities contend a teacher at Moton Elementary School reported to the Department of Children and Families seeing a colleague drag Mauk-Doane’s daughter Isabella by her pony tail about five to six feet across the floor on two separate occasions. The teacher said the girl looked to be in pain, WTSP reports.

Mauk-Doane told WFTS in May she had a feeling authorities would brush off the case.

“I’m just frustrated with the whole situation and afraid nothing good is going to come of it,” she said. “That they are not going to be held accountable for what they did.”

Isabella did not have any bruises or signs of abuse from the alleged incident, and the girl is non-verbal, so she couldn’t relay her school day to her parents.

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Mauk-Doane was informed by the sheriff’s office on Monday that criminal charges against the teacher are unlikely.

“The State Attorney’s office told me because she is a caregiver she has the right to pull her hair,” Mauk-Doane said, adding that teachers are considered a caregiver at school. “It’s heartbreaking. It’s made me depressed. I’ve been crying all the time.”

District officials declined to discuss the case, other than to confirm the investigation, WTSP reports.

Mauk-Doane said Isabella’s teacher should be fired.

“I don’t think it’s enough, the laid her hands on my daughter several times, I think she should be fired,” Mauk-Doane told the news site. “She has no right to touch my daughter, not the way she did.”

“Maybe pulling her by her hand to control her or her arm to control her, but pulling her by her hair to control her is out of line; it’s child abuse,” she said.

WFTS reported in May that Moton Elementary School principal Mark Griffith and assistant principal Anna Jenson were put on leave by the school district amid an investigation into possible testing violations.

The testing investigation, and alleged child abuse case, are ongoing.