Florida teacher brutally kicks 6-year-old special needs student in class leaving him with abrasions, arrested
DELTONA, FLORIDA: A veteran Florida elementary school teacher has been arrested and charged after she was accused of kicking a special needs student under her care. Holly Eicher, 62, who works with students with exceptional needs at Spirit Elementary School in Deltona, first came to the attention of authorities after witnesses reported they had seen her kicking a six-year-old male student on the premises, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
An arrest affidavit states that the victim's parents had contacted the Volusia County Sheriff's Office after they noticed "slight abrasions and bruises" on the boy's shoulders while bathing him. They said he did not have those marks when he had left for school that morning and that they had not been notified that he had been struck on his shoulders.
A deputy was then sent to the elementary school to interview witnesses, one of whom revealed that the incident had unfolded after the child had become uncooperative during lunchtime last Friday, February 14, after Eicher told him to finish his applesauce. The witness said the child then began yelling at the 62-year-old, who restrained him by wrapping her leg around his, a technique a second witness explained was a standard technique that teachers are taught to keep students seated and in control.
Both witnesses shared they had seen Eicher kick the student under the table, causing him to cry out. One said the six-year-old spit in the teacher's face, and the other said he spilled his applesauce, which she then made him clean.
Eicher, an 18-year veteran of the school district, was subsequently arrested at the school and charged with child abuse without great bodily harm in connection to the incident. It was also revealed that the 62-year-old had previously been investigated for physical abuse of a child on two further occasions, in 2015 and 2019, but was not punished because it was determined that the allegations were "unsubstantiated."
She was released from jail after posting $1,500 bail but has since been placed on administrative leave from the school district, pending the outcome of the police investigation.