A Florida teacher has been accused of child abuse after she allegedly struck a 5-year-old student in the face with a ruler, according to multiple reports.
Chrishawn Nicholson was charged with child abuse over the alleged incident, which took place in Miami Gardens in November 2024, on Thursday, Jan. 9, Miami Gardens police said, per NBC 6 South Florida, CBS News and WSVN.
The alleged incident took place at Aspire Preparatory Academy. Nicholson, 25, initially called the student’s mother and told her that her son had been playing with a pencil and “got cut near his eyebrow,” according to police documents, the outlets reported.
After the mother took her son to the hospital, where he received stitches, she was told by medical staff that his injury was not from a pencil. The boy claimed to his mother on his way to the medical facility that Nicholson “hit him with a ruler,” the reports said.
The mother subsequently reported the incident, and the Florida Department of Children and Families contacted child protective services to evaluate the situation. The boy repeated his accusations to investigators and demonstrated how Nicholson allegedly hit him, CBS News reported.
The mother also provided police with a video of her son telling her he was hit with a ruler, according to CBS News and WSVN.
Nicholson eventually turned herself in on Jan. 9. She was arrested and placed in Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, according to the reports.
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A prosecutor claimed in court on Jan. 10 that there is a video of Nicholson referring to the child and saying, “I did pop him,” per NBC 6 South Florida.
According to WSVN, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Mindy S. Glazer said, as Nicholson stood before her in court, “I’m not going to order her that she can’t work in her profession, because this could be an isolated incident.”
“No matter how frustrated you are, you shouldn’t take it out on that child, to where now this child, it could’ve been his eye; it was so close to his eye. Then he would have been blind for the rest of his life. Then what?” she continued.
Nicholson was ordered to stay away from the child, per CBS News.
The Miami Gardens Police and the Aspire Preparatory Academy did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment on Sunday, Jan. 12.
If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
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