Teaching assistant could face jail after assaulting pupil
A TEACHING assistant from Sheffield could face jail after being convicted of assaulting a special needs pupil, with whom she worked on a one-to-one basis.
The 29-year-old woman who, along with the school, cannot be named in order to protect the identity of the seven-year-old boy she assaulted, is due to be sentenced next month after being found guilty following a trial at Sheffield Magistrates' Court.
The court heard the incident took place at a mainstream Sheffield school on June 11 last year.
The pupil, who suffers autism, began to misbehave because he did not want to do French. He started shouting and lashing out and, when he threw himself onto another child in the class of 25, the teacher asked the assistant to help her take the boy outside.
The teacher, who took the boy's ankles while the assistant took his arms, told the court the boy was often violent and it was procedure to carry him outside to protect himself and other children.
She said: "He had a tendency to hit other children and not to follow instructions. He was shouting, screaming and lashing out."
The pair carried the boy into a room which was unoccupied except for another member of staff who was observing children playing in the yard through a window.
The teacher told the court that, as she let go of the boy, he kicked her on the ankles and slapped the assistant.
She said she decided the best thing to do was to leave the boy until he had calmed down, but as she turned her back she heard - but did not see - a slapping noise.
The other member of staff in the room told the court she saw the assistant slap the boy across the face with her left hand.
She added: "I saw her raise her left hand to head height and hit him across the face with an open palm."
When the boy's mother came to pick him up from school he told her: "The teacher hit me." He later told his mum he had "a paddy" and had "scratched her arm".
The assistant admitted she had made contact with the boy but claimed she caught him accidentally as she tried to pull her arm away when he started scratching her.
She said: "He grabbed my wrist and used his other hand to scratch my forearm. My instinct was to pull my arm away but he still had hold of my wrist.
"I pulled a bit harder, my arm flung up. I believe it caught the left side of his face. He then came at me with both his fists clenched."
The teaching assistant went immediately to see the head and informed him she had needed to restrain the boy. He advised her to get medical treatment for the scratches on her arm and she consulted a pharmacist who advised her to bathe them in antiseptic wash.
But Deputy District Judge Julia Newton said that, taking into account the evidence of the teacher, the member of staff who had been in the classroom, and the boy's mother, she was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt an assault had taken place.
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