The video is brief and brutal: a Richmond Public Schools employee appears to bite a child in their care. Within hours of its emergence, Superintendent Jason Kamras was before cameras, his face registering the kind of genuine distress that even veteran administrators struggle to mask.
“I am absolutely horrified,” Kamras said, confirming that he had viewed the footage and moved immediately to address the situation. “I have taken every necessary step accordingly.”
Kamras declined to provide specifics about which school or facility the incident occurred in, or whether the employee in question remains on the district payroll. He did not elaborate on what “every necessary step” entailed — whether that means termination, suspension pending investigation, or referral to law enforcement. RPS officials have not responded to requests for additional details.
The superintendent’s swift public response reflects lessons learned from his seven years leading a district that has weathered scandals ranging from financial mismanagement to facilities crises. Kamras, who arrived in Richmond in 2018 as a reform-minded leader with a national profile from his time as a DC Public Schools administrator, has built his tenure on visibility and direct communication with families. A disturbing video circulating on social media demands immediate acknowledgment — silence invites speculation.
But acknowledgment is not accountability, and Richmond parents have reason to demand answers about how such an incident could occur in the first place. RPS serves approximately 22,000 students across dozens of schools and programs, and the district has long struggled with staffing shortages that sometimes leave classrooms and support programs understaffed. Whether those systemic pressures played any role in whatever supervision failures allowed this incident to happen remains unknown.
The video’s emergence also raises questions about reporting mechanisms within the district. Who captured the footage? How long did it take to reach administrators? Were there prior complaints about this employee’s behavior?
For parents across Richmond — particularly those whose children receive services in special education programs or after-school care, where one-on-one interactions between adults and children are common — the superintendent’s horror, however genuine, offers cold comfort without transparency about what comes next.
Kamras has staked his reputation on building trust with Richmond families who have spent decades watching their public school system lurch from crisis to crisis. That trust requires more than a well-delivered statement of outrage. It requires answers about how a child came to be bitten by someone employed to protect them, and what structural changes will prevent it from happening again.
- Superintendent Jason Kamras confirmed he viewed video appearing to show an RPS employee biting a child
- Kamras said he was ‘absolutely horrified’ and has ‘taken every necessary step accordingly’
- The district has not disclosed which school or facility was involved, or the employee’s current status