- April 25, 2024
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A 51-year-old teacher at Roma Court Academy aggressively pushed or slung a 3-year-old boy to the ground, according to an investigation by the Flagler County Sheriff's Office.
The teacher, Xiomara Quinones, faces a potential charge of aggravated assault child abuse if the State Attorney's Office decides to prosecute. She has not been arrested.
The July 15 incident was revealed when a school cafeteria employee sent video footage of the incident anonymously to the Department of Children and Families, which then contacted the FCSO.
The employee had seen the incident in person.
She couldn't tell if the boy had been pushed or if he'd fallen on his own, but she'd noticed that Quinones didn't help him up or check to see if he was alright, even though he was crying, according to an FCSO case report. The cafeteria employee went over to comfort the boy, and then confronted Quinones, who seemed "flustered and frustrated" and told her the boy had fallen.
The employee completed an accident report, and also used her cell phone to record video of the school's surveillance camera's video footage of the incident, making a video of the video.
She "appeared nervous to speak about what she witnessed due to fear of retaliation from the staff," and "stated that they believed if they did not record the video, administration/ownership would ensure that it was never seen by the Florida Department of Children and Families and/or law enforcement," according to an FCSO arrest report.
When deputies arrived at the school and requested the original surveillance footage, "the original footage was either deleted or 'written over' and was not available to law enforcement," according to an arrest report.
Upon viewing the footage from the employee's phone, a deputy wrote in an incident report, "I observed Xiomara standing near the cafeteria doors. I also observed (the victim), who appeared to be walking back into the cafeteria, in the opposite direction of his classmates. It appears that Xiomara grabs (the victim) and then (the victim) is seen forcefully falling down on the tile floor, as if he was slung down purposefully."
When deputies spoke to Quinones, she said she'd been employed at the school for about six months and had had problems with the 3-year-old ever since he entered her class.
"She stated that 'all he does is cry all day,'" a deputy wrote in the incident report.
When a DCF investigator had asked her what happened, Quinones had said that the boy had been crying and yelling all day, and that when the class was leaving the cafeteria and the boy began walking in the wrong direction, "she placed three of her fingers behind his back to redirect him the other way, and when she did this, she states that tripped on his own," according the incident report.
She said that she'd been frustrated with the boy's behavior and with his crying.
In a written statement, she wrote that she helped the boy up off the floor.
But when deputies questioned her, she said she'd backed away from him with her hands in the air "because he has been aggressive towards her in the past," according to the incident report.
Speaking to deputies, she denied slinging the boy to the ground, but "was unable to provide an explanation for the appearance of the surveillance video," according to the arrest report.
The trajectory at which the boy fell, according to the arrest report, was "inconsistent with a child falling on their own."
She had also never completed an accident/incident report, and, when deputies asked her why, she said she did not believe he was hurt, and therefore did not think she needed to report the incident.
When deputies spoke with the boy's mother, she said she'd suspected that something was wrong when the boy, who'd been toilet trained for about a year, wet the bed at night and then was afraid to go into his classroom in the morning.
DCF notified her about the investigation on July 17. She spoke to Roma Court owner William Gerrell, she said, and he said that he'd seen the video and her son had not been pushed. When he tried to get her to agree with that, she refused.
She told deputies that she took the boy to his doctor, who recommended a visit to the ER. X-rays came back negative. But a doctor did recommend counseling and prescribe the boy medication for acute post-traumatic stress disorder.
The boy "continues to cry about everything since the alleged incident," the mother told deputies, according to the arrest report.
Deputies interviewed Gerrell, who said he'd viewed the video on his cell phone and that "he not see anything wrong with how Xiomara handled with situation with," and that he believed the victim had "has behavioral issues," according to the incident report.
Deputies asked him if Quinones had completed an incident report, and he said she had not, but added that he didn't think Quinones needed to complete one because the cafeteria employee had already done so.
But when deputies asked him for a copy of the cafeteria employee's report, "he advised that he could not find it," and, when asked for video surveillance footage of the incident, "he advised that it automatically deletes itself after 24 hours and had no way to get the video."
A deputy asked him if the boy's parents had been notified of the incident, and he replied that "he assumed they were, by Markita Bishop, who works at the front desk, but never followed up to verify."
They weren't — not until DCF called, prompting the boy's mother to come to the school and withdraw the boy immediately. When she did so, upset that she hadn't been notified earlier, Gerrell "advised her that the incident 'wasn’t a big deal,'" according to a deputy's report.
A deputy asked Gerrell what typed of incidents require an accident/incident report, and he replied that one was required any time a child falls, gets injured or is left by themselves.
The DCF investigator told Gerrell in a deputy's presence that Quinones "needed to be supervised at all times with the children, during the duration of the investigation."
Gerrell left the facility before the deputy did, and Quinones was still in the classroom, alone with the children, at the time, the deputy reported.
The boy's mother told deputies that she wanted to pursue charges against Quinones.
