BOCA RATON, Fla. – A teacher at a Boca Raton day care is accused of breaking a 3-year-old boy's leg.
Estefany Acosta, 24, was arrested Tuesday on a child abuse charge.
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According to a Boca Raton police report, the boy’s mother picked him up Friday from the Early Learning Academy on Yamato Road and noticed that he “appeared to be in a lot of pain.”
“He was shivering, had urinated on himself and had not eaten,” the report said.
The boy told his mother that his teacher “sat on his leg because he was misbehaving.”
Later that night, the boy had trouble walking or standing, so his mother took him to West Boca Medical Center, where a doctor revealed that the boy’s leg was broken.
According to the report, Acosta had initially reported that the boy was misbehaving and injured his leg after kicking a metal chair.
“When the school administrative staff confronted Acosta with the fact that the classroom was under video surveillance, she got nervous and changed her story,” the report said.
Acosta said the boy “could have been injured when she accidentally fell on him.”
After police reviewed the surveillance video, Acosta revealed what really happened.
The children had been on the playground when it started to rain, so they came inside early. The boy was upset by this and pouted, sitting on the carpet by himself. Later, he stood up and refused to sit down with the other students, spitting on the carpet and ignoring Acosta.
Acosta admitted that she picked him up by the arms and carried him across the room, placing him face down on the carpet.
As she put him down and knelt beside him, the video showed her right knee landing on his right leg, at which point the boy is seen holding his leg in pain.
Acosta admitted to police that the way she picked up the boy “was inappropriate, dangerous and could have led to him being seriously injured,” but she denied causing his leg injury or telling the staff that he had gotten hurt because he kicked a chair.
The Early Learning Academy fired Acosta, who had only been working there since November.