MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Police officers recently arrested a 32-year-old woman after a private school administrator in deep south Miami-Dade County reported that a student had shown up to class with two untreated head injuries.
Samantha Figueroa appeared in Miami-Dade County court on Thursday to face charges after confessing that she had injured the Avant School of Excellence student in Florida City.
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“I am under a lot of stress,” Figueroa said during an interview with a detective, according to the arrest report.
Police officers first responded to the K-12 school, at 777 W. Palm Dr., to meet the injured boy on Feb. 8, after he told a classmate that Figueroa, his stepmother, used a wooden stick to punish him for playing video games when he was supposed to be sleeping, according to the arrest report.
“I am scared to go home every single day ... My mom hits me with her fist, hand, wire hanger, belt, or anything she finds,” the boy told a detective, according to the arrest report.
When police officers arrested her on Wednesday, Figueroa already had a history with The Florida Department of Children and Families for allegedly using a Taser to punish the boy, according to police.
Figueroa was facing charges of aggravated child abuse with great bodily harm and child neglect with great bodily harm, Miami-Dade court records show. Her bond was set at $10,000 and she remained at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on Thursday afternoon.