Inset: Nikol Marie Rodriguez (Miami-Dade Corrections). Background: Peace Christian Academy in Hialeah, Florida, where Rodriguez allegedly assaulted a student with autism (Google Maps).
A Florida teacher is accused of “forcefully slamming” an 8-year-old student with autism to the floor although he showed no aggression toward her.
Nikol Marie Rodriguez, 29, is facing one count of child abuse without great bodily harm. According to a probable cause arrest affidavit reviewed by Law&Crime, the incident occurred on March 3 at Peace Christian Academy in Hialeah.
Rodriguez has been overseeing the student at the school since the beginning of the 2024 school year. The student is able to comprehend simple instructions but has trouble articulating his needs, cops said. The incident was captured on surveillance camera which cops acquired after issuing a subpoena.
According to the complaint, the teacher was with the victim and two other students in a classroom. The victim was sitting on the floor and not facing in the correct direction so Rodriguez spun him in an “aggressive manner,” cops wrote. A few minutes later the student moved to a bean bag and sat down.
“While the CCTV did not provide audio, the victim was not in any way displaying physically threatening behavior,” cops wrote. “The victim was simply sitting in place.”
Rodriguez went behind the boy and allegedly pulled his hands behind his back. The boy tried to escape the teacher”s grasp and appeared to be “in agony,” cops said. Rodriguez began struggling with the victim and was allegedly “seen forcefully slamming the victim’s upper body and head onto the classroom floor.”
She also “forcefully pressed” the boy into a supine position as he was kicking his legs, cops wrote. The defendant then allegedly pinned the student’s arm to the ground with her leg. Eventually, Rodriguez let the victim go but allegedly shoved him into the table when he tried to get up.
The boy’s mother noticed injuries when she was giving him a bath. He allegedly had a small puncture wound on his right bicep as well as “finger bruise marks” on his left arm and scratches on his chest.
An internal report by the school which cops obtained said Rodriguez was using “supportive de-escalation procedures” because of the boy’s “escalating behavior,” according to the complaint.
Rodriguez’s attorney struck the same tone at her bond hearing.
“It is a child that was acting out, and she was in the process of restraining [the child],” he said, according to local ABC affiliate WPLG.
Cops arrested Rodriguez on Thursday and took her to jail, where she has since posted a $5,000 bond. Her next court date is not yet listed.
Â
