A Florida teacher was arrested for putting a 3-year-old autistic boy in a headlock with her legs during story time — as the child screamed and she appeared to continue reading, according to police and a shocking photo.
A classroom aide was setting up an activity in Vilma Otero’s classroom at Forest Lake Elementary School on Aug. 23 when she heard the boy crying and saw the teacher holding the tot in the “chokehold,” authorities told wfla.com
A stunning photo snapped by the aide shows Otero, 59, sitting on a stool and reading a book to the class as the boy lies on his back beneath her in the leg grip.
The child’s face had turned red from yelling and crying as he tried to wiggle out of the teacher’s unorthodox headlock, the aide told authorities.
The boy, who was not identified in the report, had trouble communicating with police due to his disability but conveyed that he “got in trouble at school” and said, “She hurt me,” according to the report.
While speaking to the toddler, deputies also noticed some redness on the toddler’s neck.
Otero told authorities she has been a teacher for 36 years focusing largely on kids with special needs.
She admitted that it was common practice to move a child to a different room when they needed to calm down, and denied restraining the boy in the way the classroom aide described.
Otero faces a felony charge of child abuse.
