A New York City teacher has been arrested after police say he threw a 7-year-old student across a hallway on Dec. 23.
The arrest comes after school officials waited more than a month to tell the student’s mother about the alleged assault, according to gothamist.com.
The student’s mother, Shantel Phinazee, said the incident was caught on surveillance video.
“I don’t trust this school. Ya’ll waited a month to tell me, didn’t care at all about what was going on with my son. You kept it from me,” Phinazee told ABC7.
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The teacher at PS 194 in Harlem, 53-year-old Osman Couey, has been removed from the school and will be fired. Couey has been charged with assault and acting in a manner injurious to a child.
Couey has received small punishments in the past for “exercising poor judgment.” In one 2013 disciplinary case, someone reported that Couey threw a 7-year-old special needs student down a flight of stairs. Couey was making $102,000 a year at the school, where he’d worked since 1993.
Phinazee said her son is still traumatized by the incident. She is considering bringing a lawsuit against the school.
