The Orange County Criminal Lawyer Blog
A teacher at a Kansas City elementary school was recorded on surveillance video as she allegedly caused injury to a child laying on the floor of the library.
Crystal Smith, a teacher at the Bluejacket-Flint Elementary School in the Shawnee Mission School District, was recently accused of using physical force on a young girl who was not appearing to follow her instruction in the video that was captured of the event.
The footage was publicly released in a presentation compiled of several different clips depicting the alleged narrative of the incident.
A woman that the officials have determined is Smith was shown escorting a child to an area with wooden cubbies, some of which contained books and others empty, where the teacher placed the girl on the floor in a sitting position and then walked away.
In a second cut of the recording, when Smith went back to the main area of the library, the youngster is displayed crawling inside of one of the cubbies and using it in the fashion of a makeshift fort.
She returned to the spot where the child was still inside of the structure, and Smith reportedly grabbed the girl rather roughly in what has been seen as an attempt to show her displeasure with the youngster for her lack of compliance with the purported punishment. The footage then shows the woman leave the area a second time.
In the next clip, Smith revisited the spot where the girl was left sitting and proceeded to allegedly kick her as she walks past, and left the youngster laying on the floor.
After the girl left school, she told her mother that she had been hit by Smith. After allegedly finding marks on her child, the woman reportedly approached Smith and asked her for her account of what took place.
Smith allegedly told the concerned mom that her daughter was kicking uncontrollably and that if there were any visible marks on her they may have come from impacts made with the wood as the child was trying fit herself inside of the shelving unit.
The authorities are investigating the allegations, and the child’s parents are in the process of trying to prosecute Smith on civil charges for her purported actions.
As a result of the accusations, Smith was fired from her job on March 25.
If you or someone you love is suspected of child abuse, contact Orange County criminal defense lawyer Staycie R. Sena at (949) 477-8088 for a consultation now.