Main image: G.D. Rogers Garden-Bullock Elementary School; Carina Chindamo appears inset in a booking photo. (Manatee Schools; Bradenton Police Department)
Two Florida school employees are facing charges after they were seen tying a 7-year-old autistic child to a chair for an hour, police say.
Teacher Carina Chindamo, 31, and aide Taylor Internicola, 39, stand accused of one count each of false imprisonment, the Bradenton Police Department announced in a Tuesday afternoon press release.
According to Manatee County jail records, however, Chindamo was charged with one count of battery — touch or strike. County court records refer to the charge as “simple battery.” She was arrested on Feb. 5 and bonded out on Feb. 6. A warrant is currently out for Internicola’s arrest, police say.
Chindamo is an Exceptional Student Education teacher at G.D. Rogers Garden-Bullock Elementary School. Internicola is Chindamo’s aide.
The incident occurred on Friday, Feb. 2, police said. The two adults allegedly used a walking rope to tie down the nonverbal boy’s wrists.
“The child sat on the ground behind the chair, restrained, for approximately one hour,” the press release reads. “At various times in the video, Chindamo and Internicola were observed sitting on the chair, appearing to use their weight to keep the child from getting free.”
A probable cause affidavit in Chindamo’s case obtained by Law&Crime describes the implement used to restrain the 7-year-old as a “webbed nylon rope which has loops throughout.”
“During this time, the Defendant appeared to secure the Victim’s hand by using three different knots,” the affidavit reads. “Additionally, the Defendant secures the unused loops to both of the chairs back legs.”
The incident involving the two adults and the helpless child was caught on security camera footage, according to police.
“Not just one of them, but actually two of them, were tying him up with the little rope that they use to walk the kids around the school with,” the boy’s mother, Takeila Jones, told Tampa-based NBC affiliate WFLA.
Jones said she first learned about the confinement from the school’s principal.
“My daughter saw it when they were at recess,” the distraught mother told the TV station. “She didn’t want to say anything to me because she thought ‘it’s his teacher, it’s Miss so-and-so, it’s fine, I didn’t think anything of it. He was over there crying and stuff like that and I didn’t want to get in trouble.””
During a Mirandized interview, Chindamo allegedly told police she had been teaching for seven years — two years at her current school.
“The Defendant was aware of the Victim being tied up behind her chair,” the affidavit reads. “The Defendant explained that she has been using his method since the beginning of the school year in order to move from locations within the school. The Defendant further advised the Victim has previously attempted to flee the school grounds.”
When pressed by police, Chindamo said the boy had once tried to leave the school but only made it as far as the parking lot. When an investigator pressed her about whether she was trained to restrain children, she answered that she was, according to the affidavit.
The defendant went on to tell police that “this was done if the child is in danger of being a harm to themselves or others,” the affidavit says.
“Y’all were supposed to protect him, y’all were supposed to watch out for him and teach him, not put him in harm’s way with these people that hurt him,” Jones told WFLA. “He can’t tell mommy what’s happening, what’s not happening. All he can do, you know, is just be himself.”
A hearing in Chindamo’s case is currently slated for March 6. Manatee County court records do not currently show an attorney of record.
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