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On the one hand, Kimberly Acker of DeRidder is happy that an alleged child molester is no longer teaching at her daughter's school. On the other hand, she said she is furious with the events that led up to the teacher's arrest.

On April 29, Timothy Brannon, 33, a Pinewood Elementary School teacher, was arrested on seven counts of molestation of a juvenile and eight counts of sexual battery.

The day before the arrest, Acker's daughter and about 40 members of the fourth-grade class at the school were loaded into buses and taken to the sheriff's office, where they were interviewed for hours, without their parents' being of informed where they were.

Acker said she found out about the investigation when her child didn't get off the bus in the afternoon.

"No one knew where these children were," Acker said. "Everyone was scared, freaked out, (they) didn't know anything.

You called the school and they (were not) telling us anything. What I want to know is who gave them the authority to just walk into the school and just take the kids."

Acker, of DeRidder, has contacted Lafayette attorney Clayton Burgess to help her sort out what eventually may become a class-action lawsuit against the Beauregard Parish Sheriff's Office.

Eight days before the arrest, police said they received a complaint by a 9-year-old student of Brannon's that he had inappropriately touched her. The student was interviewed a few days later on April 25, and Brannon was placed on administrative leave the following day. Two days later, a number of other students allegedly came forward, and the Sheriff's Office reacted, police said.

Acker said she's grateful the Sheriff's Office arrested Brannon, but she still can't understand just why the deputies acted in the manner they did on April 28.

Acker said she arrived at the Sheriff's Office shortly after 3 p.m. to pick up her child.

"Parents were everywhere trying to get their children. Everybody is worried, crying, hysterical, wondering where their child is," she said.

When she demanded to see her child, Acker said she was in for another surprise.

She said Chief Deputy Robert McCullough explained to her that they were conducting an investigation and her daughter was being interviewed. She said he told her "we'll call you when she's ready. You can go ahead and go home."

She said nearly two hours later, she was called and told to pick up her daughter. No one there told her anything else, she said.

McCullough said the department does not want to issue any comment on how the investigation was conducted but would rather focus on the "fact that we had a number of children who had reported that they had been inappropriately touched by a teacher at school, and their safety was our utmost concern. If we had a teacher in the school who was abusing children, we needed to get that information as quickly and as accurately as we could."

Burgess, the attorney, said that explanation is not enough.

"I have never heard of anything like this in my life," Burgess said.

He said parents should be informed when their child is taken out of school.

"On what legal basis -- and there is none -- can a sheriff's deputy pick up your child, which is not a suspect of a crime, of which you are not accused of abusing your child, and refuse to give them back to you. Witnesses have rights, also," Burgess said.

McCullough said what deputies did was legal and the information obtained from the interviews will be admissible in court.

Acker said the following day she went to the School Board office, where someone in the administration told her they were told not to inform the parents "because it was not their investigation and that if they tried to contact the parents or got involved in any way, they would be charged with obstruction of justice."

No one from the school would comment for this article, but a written statement from Myrna Cooley, superintended of the Beauregard Parish School Board, said "this investigation has been a law enforcement matter with law officials assuming all responsibility for every facet of the investigation."

McCullough said the investigation is ongoing and he Sheriff's Office was assisted by "experienced child abuse investigators" from various local agencies.

Brannon bailed out of jail on a $150,000 bond. He remains on paid administrative pending the outcome of the investigation.