An Horry County man faces criminal charges after he punched his child's assistant principal on the first day of this school year.
The man says he did it because of an error that left his child at the wrong school and on the wrong school bus.
The incident began last Monday on the first day of school at Whittemore Park Middle School in Conway.
Charles David Hucks, Jr. is charged with third degree assault and battery and disturbing schools.
Hucks became worried after his child didn't return home from school this past Monday, so he drove to Whittemore Park.
"I didn't know if he got lost, if somebody kidnapped him ... I just didn't know," Hucks said Monday.
When he arrived just before 5:00 p.m., Hucks said the assistant principal didn't act concerned.
"If I got somebody's young'un missing, I would listen and try to understand, but he (the assistant principal) didn't."
Within a few minutes, the assistant principal, Gary Williams, located Hucks' son on a bus near Cates Bay Road.
That was miles from where Hucks lives, and he couldn't understand why his son, Hunter, was that far out.
"And that's when the me and the principal got into it."
The child was safely returned, but Hucks said the argument continued, and that's when Hucks hit Williams.
"He throwed his hands up in my face, and said 'I ain't got nothing else to say to you,'" Hucks said. "And when he flung his hands in my face, I thought he was going to slap me, and I hit him in the back of the head."
Warrants were issued and Hucks was charged, but why his son was on the wrong bus was a mistake by the Whittemore Park Middle School.
It turns out, Hucks' son wasn't ever supposed to be enrolled at Whittemore Park. So why was he? Hucks said he received notification that he should enroll his child there, and district officials confirmed that.
Because he was at Whittemore, explains why the child wasn't dropped off at his house -- because the buses didn't plan for it.
The district acknowledged the mistake, and Whittemore's principal, Robbie Watkins, says the mistake was probably a result of the Hucks' address.
They live in close proximity to the Whittemore/Conway Middle School "attendance split" line.
"The kids living close to the line ... sometimes, I guess, mistakes happen," said Watkins.
Watkins said the important thing to note is that the child was returned safely. He said the bus driver did the right thing and returned the child to the school.
The child was enrolled by the third day of this school year at Conway Middle School, where he's supposed to be.
