Inset: Bryia Lattimore Scott (Laurens County Sheriff’s Office). Background: Waterloo Elementary School (Google Maps).
A woman in South Carolina is accused of impersonating someone else to get a job at an elementary school where she then allegedly attacked a student with special needs.
Bryia Lattimore Scott was taken into custody two weeks ago and initially charged with one count of identity fraud to unlawfully obtain employment. More than a week after her initial arrest, Scott was charged with an additional count of felony unlawful conduct towards a child over the alleged attack, authorities announced.
According to a news release from the Laurens County Sheriff’s Office, the Laurens County School District 55 earlier this month contacted sheriff’s deputies in reference to an individual “impersonating” another person “in order to gain this employment at Waterloo Elementary.” The school is about 185 miles northwest of Charleston, South Carolina.
A subsequent investigation revealed that Scott had been “posing as” someone named “Viola Church” when she began her employment with district in September as a temporary special education teacher. She was formally arrested on Dec. 19, 2024, for the identity fraud charge and released on a $5,000 personal recognizance bond.
Scott, who worked as a teacher during her brief stint at the elementary school, was technically employed by Aya Healthcare, a digital staffing platform that contracts with the district, Greenville, South Carolina, Fox affiliate WHNS reported. Aya specializes in finding employment for traveling nurses and refers to itself as “the global leader in workforce optimization,” on its website.
A spokesperson for Aya told The Post and Courier that the company was “deeply disturbed” by the allegations against Scott, and accused her of producing fraudulent documentation of her identity.
“We are reviewing this matter and will work with the appropriate authorities, but due to the ongoing legal case, we are unable to provide any further specifics,” Aya spokeswoman Lisa Parks reportedly wrote in an email to the newspaper.
Becca Craine, whose son was one of Scott’s students, told the Courier that the school principal was alerted to the true identity of “Ms. Church” by an anonymous tipster.
On Dec. 20, one day after Scott’s arrest, a “concerned parent” contacted the sheriff’s office and reported an “incident involving Scott and a child in the same classroom,” the office said in a follow-up release.
“Upon further investigation by the Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Unit, it was determined that Scott assaulted a special needs child on December 18th,” the release states. “The assault was reported to the administration of the school on December 18th by concerned aides working with students in the same classroom.”
Scott was arrested for a second time on Dec. 30, and charged with unlawful conduct.
“I want to commend the teachers aides for stepping up and reporting this incident involving one of their co-workers,” Sheriff Don Reynolds said in a statement. “I am thankful for them being forthcoming, as we all share concern for the wellbeing of these children.”
Ironically, Craine said that Scott was a great teacher who was extremely helpful with her son, who has “severe autism.”
“The progress that I’ve seen with him is just amazing. I absolutely loved her,” Craine told the newspaper prior to the unlawful conduct charge being announced publicly. “Nobody had a clue that she wasn’t who she was claiming to be. And that’s what’s crazy to me.”
