Santa Fe teacher could face charges for cage restraint

A Santa Fe High School shop teacher is on paid leave tonight, after cell phone video surfaced of her locking a student in a cage outside. Now she may face criminal charges Dealing with a student who was misbehaving, that teacher told police she felt her actions on January 7th were appropriate and she wasn’t apologetic about it at all. "She actually empowered two students in her same class to sort of control him physically," explained Santa Fe Police Detective Sergeant Louis Carlos. In the video students put their 15 year old classmate in a wire cage outside. The teacher locks it, leaving the boy inside the cage with dangerous chemicals. "Such as motor oil and antifreeze and other chemicals that they use in the shop," Sergeant Carlos explained. The video continues as the boy waves to his classmates and eventually kicks the gate to free himself. He calls his parents, they call the school, and the school calls police. "We're looking at whether or not her actions define criminal code for abuse and neglect because of leaving him in this cage that housed chemicals. And of course the temperature, the weather that day. And second for false imprisonment," Sergeant Carlos added. He says the entire event was orchestrated by the shop teacher. "She relayed to us that she deemed her actions to be disciplinary. She thought that this was the best way that she could handle the situation." The teacher is now on paid administrative leave, while police investigate, and wait for other students to turn in their own cell phone video of the incident. The District Attorney will decide whether she faces charges. KOB Eyewitness News 4 has learned the student is so overwhelmed by the incident, he's actually left the state for now. The Superintendent says she doesn't plan to comment until she knows if the teacher will be charged.

Channel: Voxant Newsroom Video Length: 0s Date Found: Thu, Jan 20 2011 6:13 AM Category: News Date Produced: Wed, Jan 19 2011 10:02 PM View Count: 0