NORTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - A teacher at a Northwest Miami-Dade school has been removed from his post as the district investigates allegations that he slapped a 10-year-old student multiple times, prompting calls for accountability from the boy’s parents.
A picture of the fifth grader taken by his grandmother shows his right cheek red and swollen.
The boy’s family said he told his grandmother that his art teacher at Agenoria S. Paschal / Olinda Elementary School, located in the Brownsville neighborhood, slapped him in the face on Dec. 12.
Speaking with 7News on Thursday, the child’s parents said the incident left their son traumatized.
“The teacher slapped him in the face,” said his mother.
“I just couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe it because I felt that school, I thought he was safe there,” said his father, “and for your child to be scared at school, it’s where he’s supposed to be safer.”
The boy’s mother described what her son told her.
“I asked what happened, and he told me that the teacher slapped him four times in his face, and he wanted to call us, but he couldn’t do anything because the teacher made him stand next to him and stand right there until the bell rings for class to get out,” she said.
The parents, who asked not to be identified, said they received a phone call from the school’s principal and the teacher involved after school let out. They said the teacher told them that the slap was an accident.
But the parents said they later got word from other teachers and students who said the student was struck, not once, but multiple times in front of the whole class.
The parents filed a report with Miami-Dade Schools Police. They said that when their child returned from winter break, he was surprised to see the teacher was also back.
“I got several calls that day that everybody’s concerned about my son — not students, but teachers,” said his mother. “People that work there … they let me know that [the art teacher] is here, that, ‘He hit your son. Why is he here?'” said his mother.
“To hear your child see a face that assaulted him, to call frantic and say, ‘He’s here,’ he don’t want to go to the school no more,” said his father.
7News sent a request to Miami-Dade County Public Schools.
M-DCPS spokesperson Jaquelyn Calzadilla Diaz said the art teacher, who has been employed with the school system since 1994, “has been removed from the school setting pending the outcome of the investigation.”
In a statement issued Thursday afternoon, Calzadilla Diaz wrote, “Miami-Dade County Public Schools is deeply disturbed by the troubling allegations made against this individual. Conduct such as the one he is accused of will not be tolerated. As such, the District is actively investigating this matter and will take appropriate disciplinary action.”
The boy’s parents said they want to see the teacher arrested and charged with battery.
“I just don’t understand why he’s not arrested,” said his father. “I just want to see him held accountable for what he’s done. That’s all I want to see done: for what he did to my child, I just want to see him held accountable for his actions.”
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