In Florida, police arrested a teacher after they say she choked a 3-year-old boy with autism during story time, which was bullying.
A child abuse charge has been brought against Vilma Otero, 59, by the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office. Law & Crime got a probable cause arrest document that said the event happened on Friday at Deltona’s Forest Lake Elementary School.
The abuse was seen by a paraeducator, who called the Department of Children and Families, who then sent officers to the scene. The witness told the police that she was getting ready for the next activity while Otero read to the kids on the other side of the room.
She heard a student scream in pain and turned around to see Otero sitting in a chair with the student “held down in a choke hold” between her legs, the statement said. Police say it was clear to the paraeducator that the boy was “in distress.” A police report said that his face was red from crying and screaming while he tried to get away from Otero’s legs.
The witness pulled out her phone and began taking pictures of what was happening. She then gave the pictures to the cops.
Law&Crime spoke with Otero’s lawyer, Richard Zaleski, who said that the accusations are “absurd.”
“She has served the community her whole life, and the photos are taken out of context,” he said. “We will ask everyone to follow the process and give Mrs. Otero the benefit of the doubt, with all due respect to the employee who took the pictures and didn’t do anything else.”
On Saturday, police met with the boy and his family. When the boy got home from school on Friday, his relatives said he looked “in a good mood and playful.”
According to reports, deputies saw “slight redness” on his neck. The boy said, “I got in trouble at school” and “she hurt me,” but the statement says he couldn’t say more about what happened.
Otero told the deputies that she had been a teacher for more than 35 years, and that most of that time had been spent with children who needed special education. She also said that moving kids who are acting up to a different room to calm down is the best thing to do with them.
Her deputies then told her she was being charged with holding a student down in a way that was “not deemed acceptable.” At first, she denied holding the boy down, but when deputies showed her pictures of her pinning him to the floor, she admitted it.
“Otero did tell deputies that she knew physically restraint special needs children in the way described would be wrong, but she continued to deny that she had done so even after being shown photos of the incident,” the deputies wrote.
The police put her in jail on a charge of child abuse. She is now free on bond and has pleaded not guilty. The next time she has to go to court is September 19.
The Volusia County School District told the media that the teacher is on administrative leave while the district looks into what happened.