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A first grade teacher in Riviera Beach, Florida, is accused of violently shoving a 7-year-old boy’s head into a wall, causing him to lose a front tooth and injure his lip.
Cynthia Smith, 64, a teacher at Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary School, was arrested Friday on a charge of child abuse. The school’s principal, Katrina Granger, had contacted school district police the day before upon learning of the incident, according to an arrest report.
An officer interviewed in the report says Smith claimed in a written statement that students were pushing one another and that one of them was pushed into the wall.
But Palm Beach County School District Police said surveillance video from the school told a different story.
Smith was standing in a hallway near her classroom on Jan. 28 as students walked on both sides of her, according to the arrest report.
The boy was seen in the video moving his hands on a bulletin board, the arrest report states. Smith walked toward the child, leaned in and violently shoved him face-first into the wall, according to the report.
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Article URL: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/florida-teacher-charged-child-abuse-allegedly-knocking-tooth-out-7-n1131906