By The Atlanta Journal-constitution

Published: Thursday, January 3, 2013, 9:08 p.m.
Updated: Thursday, January 3, 2013

ATLANTA — A Georgia school board member under fire for allegedly ramming a teenager with her SUV during a dispute over a parking space has resigned.

Angela Cornett, 41, was arrested a week ago and charged with reckless conduct. Cornett had steadfastly said she didn't intentionally ram the teen outside the Cartersville Wal-Mart, but the incident — which has attracted national attention and local outrage — was caught on the store's surveillance video.

The video, released by the Bartow County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday, shows 17-year-old Emily Gulledge standing in a parking space as a white Lexus SUV approaches.

Gulledge said Cornett, a Bartow County school board member, told her to move. “I didn't think she was going to hit me,” she told “The Today Show” on Thursday. “I politely told her that I was holding the space. She tells me to move again and rams me.”

Photos released by the Sheriff's Office show black grime on the girl's pants. She was not hurt.

Cornett “just felt it was in the best interest of her, her family and the school district” to resign, effective immediately, her attorney John T. Mroczko, said. Cornett had no other comment, Mroczko said.

The incident put tiny Bartow County in the national spotlight.

Other than “The Today Show,” the story aired on “Good Morning America” and a number of other media outlets.

“I was the child in this incident,” said Gulledge, a senior at Adairsville High School, “but she acted like a child.”

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