A Lawrence school district employee who works with junior high school students was suspended Wednesday after a judge in Kansas City, Mo., found her guilty of assaulting a teenager.

Julie Donner, a paraprofessional at South Junior High School, and her mother, Jill Powell, both of Lawrence, were found guilty Tuesday of assault on a 17-year-old niece who was baby-sitting Donners’ three children, a municipal court official said.

Court officials said both were fined $500 in addition to court costs. Donner and Powell plan to appeal.

Donner’s suspension from her job at South was effective Wednesday, said Bob Arevalo, the district’s director of personnel.

He said a decision about her future employment in the district would be made “very soon” after an internal review of her case.

Employees convicted of a such a crime generally are fired by the district because to do otherwise would be “placing someone at risk,” Arevalo said.

Donner has been employed by the Lawrence district since 2000, working most recently in South’s resource room, a place where students get individual assistance with academic work.

Neither Donner nor Powell could be reached for comment.

A report filed by Kansas City, Mo., Police officers indicated Donner’s three children were staying with her estranged husband, George Donner, when the June 6 incident occurred. The Donners have since divorced.

The police report says Donner and Powell entered a home where the niece, LaChelsa Chambers, was baby-sitting the Donners’ children, all under 6 years of age. Donner and Powell began to forcibly remove the children from the house, police said.

The resulting fight left Chambers with injuries caused by being bit, scratched, slapped and kicked. Chambers’ younger sister also was injured in the dispute, the police report said.

Donner and Powell eventually were able to remove the children from the home and drove away.

Before going to trial in municipal court, Donner said in an interview that she did nothing wrong.

“We have 911 tapes to prove it,” Donner said.

A hearing on the appeal by Donner and Powell is scheduled for Oct. 3 in the appellate division of Kansas City, Mo., Municipal Court.

The Lawrence district employs about 300 paraprofessionals to support the work of classroom teachers, Arevalo said.

He said he rarely was called upon to handle criminal matters related to the district’s classified employees.

“I don’t deal with this frequently,” he said. “We manage each situation on an individual basis.”