Teacher arrested for domestic violence after Thanksgiving incident with family

Staff report

CANFIELD

A Canfield Village Middle School teacher is facing charges of domestic violence, resisting arrest and obstructing official business after a Thanksgiving Day incident in which police used a stun gun to subdue him.

Douglas D. Dawson, 47, of Canfield, was arrested after Canfield police were called to his Greenmont Drive home at 10:48 p.m. Nov. 27. He was arraigned in Mahoning County Area Court in Canfield on Nov. 28 and pleaded not guilty.

Court records show he posted bond Tuesday — $2,500 cash or surety bond — and he is allowed to continue teaching. A pretrial hearing is set for Dec. 19.

The school’s website lists Dawson as an eighth-grade social studies teacher.

A Canfield police report states the family had gone out of town for a holiday dinner and had returned home. Dawson and one of his sons got into an argument about the son wanting to use Dawson’s car to go out. Dawson refused and a few minutes later, the son took his sister’s car against Dawson’s wishes.

Dawson got into an argument with his wife about the son leaving, his wife told police. Dawson put his wife in a headlock “and flipped her upside down and pinned her down,” the report said.

The couple’s children tried to get Dawson off the mother, and then police arrived.

Authorities said Dawson, once handcuffed, began to resist arrest by planting his feet and refusing to move. He threw himself backward into an officer, driving that officer into a glass china cabinet. At that point, Dawson was stunned and pinned down.