Washington Heights has a Quiddich team? Cool.
Posted on 06/14/2002 7:14:01 AM PDT by thefactor
A substitute teacher picked up a broom and went berserk in a first-grade Washington Heights classroom yesterday-whacking children in a wild melee that sent 20 kids to the hospital bloody and bruised, cops said.
Mom Beatrice Balbuena comforts Angel Rodriguez, 7, who holds bruise on his head he received ... Danilo Nunez, 59, freaked out after he waded into the middle of a crayon-tossing fight between pupils in his class in Room 101 at Public School 4 on W. 160th St. at Amsterdam Ave., police said.
The children screamed for help as Nunez swung the broom, pummeled them with his fists and grabbed their heads and ears about 2 p.m., cops and kids said.
"The substitute teacher was acting crazy, he was hitting people with a broom," said Joshua Perdomo, 6, who escaped with a small cut on his face.
... when substitute teacher Danilo Nunez allegedly attacked first-graders at PS 4. As Nunez lashed out at a few of the children, others rushed to the defense of their friends, further enraging the sub from hell, the kids said.
He even threatened to pull off his belt and whip the terrified 6- and 7-year-olds, shaken children said.
"I was so scared. When he hit me, I was crying," said Michelle Holguin, 7, wearing a green hospital bracelet last night.
"Everyone was shouting and crying," she said. "He was a big man and he looked crazy."
A school security guard and other teachers raced into the room to break up the fracas.
Bleeding from head and arm wounds, the children were loaded into ambulances and taken to Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, where they were met by frightened and furious parents.
Twenty students were treated for minor injuries and released.
Nunez, a licensed sub who worked 67 days this academic year, was facing multiple assault counts last night.
He was fired and placed on an "ineligible list" to prevent him from ever working in a city school, said Catie Marshall, a spokeswoman for the Board of Education.
Angry parents planned to meet with school officials at 9 a.m. today to discuss the attack and seek to prevent future incidents. Crisis counselors were planning to meet with pupils.
"These are first-grade children," said Daisy Gutierrez, the school's PTA president. "I can't imagine what made him snap."
Had Worked in Bronx
Officials said Nunez, who lives in the Bronx, had worked for most of the year as a substitute at several Bronx high schools before recently moving to elementary schools in School District 6 in upper Manhattan.
As school officials scheduled a meeting about the rampage for today, parents expressed anger and shock.
Anna Martinez, 37, got a call at work telling her to go to the hospital to find her son, Joshua.
"I send my son to school thinking he's safe and look what happens," said Martinez.
Last night, 7-year-old Angel Rodriguez's mother stroked her son's head, which sported a nasty bruise.
"He hit me with the broom and he pushed me on the floor," a visibly shaken Angel said. "He slapped me two times."
"This is an outrage," said the boy's mother, Beatrice Balbuena, 31. "It doesn't make any sense."
With Alison Gendar, Martin Mbugua, Richard Weir and Joe Williams
That is a total lie.
Me and you both. When the article got to the part about other teachers intervening, I had intrusive fantasies about how I would intervene if I had been one of the other teachers.
Despite comments by some idiots on this thread, this kind of behavior against kids aged 6 and 7 cannot be justified and could only have been perpetrated by a mentally unbalanced person.
I can't deny that I had similar fantasies about posters who agree with his behavior or make light of the trauma experienced by these kids. Broomsticks and fists? Blood and bruises? 6 and 7 years old? That's sick.
Okay, he needs his a** whiped(I am sure a parent or two could help here)....
Okay, he will have a long time to think about his actions....
BUT if a grown man wanted to HURT these kids, where are the broken bones? Broken teeth? Internal injuries?
Flame me if you want, but a grown man could easially KILL a first grader....this sounds like psyco 'tough love'....and he will find a different kind of 'tough love' where he is going....
Washington Heights has a Quiddich team? Cool.
That said, swinging a broom at the students' heads was not the way to do it.
Wow...sounds like the show Boston Public may not be so crazy as I thought here in wonderful Kansas. I don't know how you managed to keep your cool, but you deserve an award for that!
Teacher, from what you say, you have been beaten down to except outrageous behavior because of the system that you work in.
The things you have mentioned in your post are INSANE: yet you list them as items on a grocery list.You are proud of them and think that dealing with whacked out behavior somehow makes you a better teacher. IT DOES NOT. It makes you a slave to the system and impowers the pieces of s*it parents you hate.
I have been attacked on this thread because I wanted to fault the loser parents for allowing their children to act in a fashion that would cause a teacher to lose control and go insane.
How Strange.
All the homeschool "teachers" out there love these stories because they give creedence to their decision to teach their children at home.
They love to show how crazy the public school system is and how awesome of an education their kids are getting at home.
What I'm saying is that if one of these homeschool "teachers" stepped one foot into a classroom they would do the same thing as this poor slob did; after eight hours of abuse from children whose parents have no time to care; they would take up a broom and knock some sense into these 6 year old, ready for the prison system, children.
The parents of these kids got what they deserved.
When there children get older and understand what happened to them, I hope they smack their parent(Not parents) in the mouth with a broom.
Also....At least this guy had the GUTS to go into an inner city classroom and give it a shot.
It's more then all you homeschool hypocrites can say.
Save the high and mighty talk for someone who cares and go and teach your two kids how to read and write at your kitchen tabe.
Real hard job.
I'm sweating just thinking about it.
I guess this is the same to you...
Whacking around some out of control kids, or doing them up the a*s?
Grow up buddy.
Sorry to get you panties in a twist.
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