A Florida teacher was arrested after holding a 3-year-old autistic boy's head under his knees during story time, while the boy screamed, according to police statements and shocking photos, but the teacher appeared to carry on reading.
Authorities said a classroom assistant was setting up an activity in Vilma Otero's classroom at Forest Lake Elementary on Aug. 23 when she heard the boy crying and saw the teacher putting a “chokehold” on him. Source
Shocking photos taken by an aide show Otero, 59, sitting in a chair with the boy lying on his back under the grip of her legs as she read to the class.
The child was screaming and crying as he tried to free himself from the teacher's unusual headlock, his face was red from crying, an aide told authorities.
The boy, whose identity was not released in the report, had trouble communicating with police because of a disability but told them he had been “causing trouble at school” and that “she was hurting me,” according to the report.
While speaking with the toddler, officers also noticed slight redness around the toddler's neck.
Otero told authorities she had been a teacher for 36 years, primarily working with children with special needs.
She accepted that it was common practice to move a child to another room when they needed to be calmed down, but denied having restrained the boy in the way described by the classroom aide.
Otero is charged with felony child abuse.
