BERRYVILLE, Ark. -- The state’s child maltreatment list is designed to help police, prosecutors and employers protect children. Last May, Berryville teacher Betty Cox was placed on that list. She still has her teaching license, however, and the parents who accused her of abuse say they want to know why.

The family of seventh-grade student Jerry Schoe says Cox pushed him against walls, embarrassed him in front of his class and called him names during the last school year. They call it bullying; Cox calls it classroom control.

Jerry wrote a letter that started with two desperate words: “Dear someone.”

“I thought I wasn't good for anything,” he said recently.

Jerry's suicide note spelled out months of torment at school.

“I knew he had been hurt. I didn't realize how hurt until I found the letter,” said Richard Schoe.

Parents Audrey McCanless and Richard Schoe say a therapist helped them figured out the source of their son's sadness: his 6th grade teacher, who was Cox.

“I just felt like it was constant picking on me, bullying me. I didn't really feel like I learned anything,” said Jerry.

The therapist gave Jerry's parents a letter that says Jerry talked about verbal attacks and physical attacks on his classmates, including where one child was pushed up against a wall in the hallway. The therapist diagnosed Jerry with posttraumatic stress disorder.

After talking to other parents, Richard Schoe pulled him from school and called the child abuse hotline.

“We saw a bigger picture. If it was just our situation, our child, we might have not done what we've done but we saw a broader picture, a constant problem: bullying as a teaching method, not a slip up or mistake,” said Schoe.

Reports from the Division of Family Services show investigators spent months interviewing families, including Jerry’s, and found enough evidence to support an allegation of child maltreatment

A spokeswoman for DFS said in a telephone interview that, according to state law, only federal, local and state agencies can access the list. That includes public schools.

Employers such as childcare centers can have DFS check to see if a name is on the list if they have permission from the employee. It's up to individual agencies like the Department of Education to decide what to do with that information.

“We got a letter from the Department of Education that, because there was no criminal conviction involved, it does not affect her license and they declined to intervene,” said McCanless.

Cox, whose husband was Berryville School District superintendent at the time of the investigation, has said in the past that she will fight DFS' decision to place her on the list, although she didn't return a reporter’s phone calls for this report. Documents from both DFS and Cox's personal lawyer, however, show she refused to participate in the investigation.

Cox still has a teaching position at Berryville but she has not reported for class yet this year. But Jerry has.

“You're still excited to come back to school?” he was asked.

“Yeah, I'm really excited. I can continue playing football and seeing friends and having socialization,” he said.

Even though Cox hasn't shown up, Jerry's parents are just upset she can still teach.

“I'm more than surprised. I’m upset. It's plain wrong. It’s just wrong.”

A reporter made repeated attempts to contact Cox, both by phone and through her attorneys. Neither would return calls although, in past interviews, her husband said he's upset because he feels they're confusing classroom control with abuse.

The Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services says it has no way of knowing how many teachers are on that child maltreatment list since it doesn't keep track of the professions of people on the list.