Tonya Gainey, Walton County, Florida special educator arrested for child abuse after throwing out non verbal 3 year old boy’s lunch and leaving him to cry as other students ate.
Define helpless…? A Florida teacher has been charged with child abuse after she allegedly threw out a non verbal student’s lunch after becoming irritable, leaving the 3 year old boy to cry while his classmates ate.
Tonya Gainey, 57, of Walton County, who worked at the WISE Center was caught on surveillance cameras on Dec. 10 having a physical altercation with the 3-year-old student.
Leading up to her arrest, the educator had worked with the Exceptional Student Education program for students with disabilities, WTVY reported.
Special education teacher refuses to understand where she went wrong
During the alleged episode, Gainey ‘slam[med] down the arm’ of the little boy during the class lunch period, according to the Walton County Sheriff’s Office.
Video showed Gainey allegedly ‘throwing away the student’s food and ignoring him for the rest of the period.’ Police said that the boy ‘can be visually seen crying and in pain.’
The following day, school administrators were told about the incident involving Gainey and notified the Department of Children and Families. They also notified Gainey, advising her that there would be an investigation into her alleged behavior toward the student and that she would be ‘reassigned’ in order to prevent her from having any further contact with the student and others, police said.
Except there was a hitch….
The Walton County Sheriff’s Office said that upon learning about her reassignment, ‘Gainey was uncooperative and refused to leave campus, eventually leading her to be escorted and ultimately trespassed from school property by the School Resource Deputy.’ During this meeting, Gainey submitted her immediate resignation over email.
On Dec. 13, a warrant was issued for Gainey’s arrest and she was charged with one misdemeanor count of trespassing and one felony count of child abuse. She was released on $5,000 bond and is currently awaiting trial.
