http://www.nydailynews.com/news/cri...disabled-kids-mouth-vinegar-article-1.3492852
A Florida teacher sprayed disabled students in the mouth with vinegar as the school's principal did little to intervene, according to authorities.
Kenwood Elementary School teacher Marilynn Stillions is accused of abusing Eddie Perillo's 6-year-old son in 2016, but the dad did not find out about the probe until earlier this year, according to the Northwest Florida Daily News.
[....]
A total of three people are facing charges ranging from child abuse to failure to report the alleged child abuse, according to the newspaper.
Stillions "inappropriately" sprayed disabled students with vinegar, school district investigator Arden Farley said in a report obtained by the paper.
The teacher is also accused of using her foot to push students down the aisle in the lunchroom. She allegedly denied students their lunches and threw away students' food, the Northwest Florida Daily News reported. At times she ate the food herself.
The school district could not take action against Stillions because union regulations were not adhered to. Stillions ended up moving to a different school after the Northwest Florida Daily News published its findings.
A criminal complaint by Perillo led to the criminal charges, according to the newspaper.
[....]
Former principal Angelyn Vaughan and Farley, the investigator, were hit with failure to report charges.
In her arrest report obtained by the Daily News, a witness saw Stillions chase a student and tried to pin him against a wall. Stillions then struck the student in the chin with her knee four times, according to the arrest report. The witness reported the incident to Vaughan and another person.
Investigators found that Vaughan had "reasonable cause" to suspect that the child was being abused by Stillions. The principal did not report the vinegar and other incidents despite having knowledge of them, according to her arrest report. She was required to report the incidents to the Florida Department of Children and Families Abuse Hotline.
Vaughan no longer is employed by the school.
Farley was charged because he also "failed to make a mandatory report" to the hotline.
[....]
Perillo has said his son had been acting strange, and did not know why.
"If my child so much as receives a bandage during school, I am notified," Newcomer told the paper. "I find it absurd that if someone witnesses a teacher knock a student down or forces a student to sit in a basket, that no one feels it is their duty to call a parent."