A teacher in Florida was arrested for putting a 3-year-old boy with autism in a headlock with her legs while reading a story, reports the NY Post.
The child was crying, but the teacher continued reading, as reported by the police and seen in a shocking photo. On August 23, a classroom aide was preparing an activity in Vilma Otero’s classroom at Forest Lake Elementary School when she heard the boy crying. She saw the teacher holding him in what looked like a chokehold.
A surprising photo taken by the aide shows Otero, 59, sitting on a stool and reading to the class while the boy is lying on his back underneath her. The child’s face was red from yelling and crying as he tried to wiggle his way out of the teacher’s hold, according to the aide’s statement to the authorities.
The boy, whose name was not mentioned in the report, had difficulty communicating with the police due to his disability. However, he managed to express that he
“got in trouble at school”
and said,
“She hurt me,”
according to the report. When talking to the young boy, deputies saw some redness on his neck.
Otero told the authorities that she has been a teacher for 36 years, mostly working with special needs kids. She claimed that it’s normal to move a child to another room when they need to calm down and denied restraining the boy as the aide described. Otero is facing a serious charge of child abuse.
#Clique, what are your thoughts?
