By Melanie Lefkowitz
STAFF WRITER
June 14, 2002
Twenty first-grade students went to a hospital yesterday after their substitute teacher went berserk in their Washington Heights classroom, smacking them with a broomstick, pulling their hair and twisting their ears, police said.
Danilo Nuñez was breaking up a fight between two 6-year-olds at PS 4 at 500 W. 160th St. when he hit one of the children with a broom, police said. Two or three other students came to that child's aid, police said, and Nunez, 57, allegedly began smacking them with the broom, shouting "Shut up! Shut up!"
About 20 other students joined in the fray, which school safety officers broke up, police said.
"Kids are saying he lost control of the classroom," one police source said. "Two or three kids came to his [the first child's] aid, and then the entire class got involved."
The injured children were treated at Columbia Presbyterian Center, police said. Of those, 11 had visible injuries, such as black eyes and bruises to the neck, back and shoulders, police said.
Students and a teacher interviewed outside PS 4 last night said the incident started when some children threw crayons around the classroom. Nuñez screamed at the students and the incident escalated.
Maria Lopez, a fifth-grade teacher at the school, said she was surprised when she heard about the incident. "I don't know what could have put him in that position. Only he would know," she said.
Nuñez was taken into custody around 1:40 p.m. He was being questioned at the 33rd Precinct station house, police said.
Nuñez, of 288 Grand Concourse in the Bronx, was placed on the Board of Education's "ineligible" list, a spokeswoman said, meaning he will no longer be permitted to work as a teacher.
It was unclear how long he'd been working as a substitute, but he's worked about 65 days this school year, at least three in District 6, where PS 4 is located, said Catie Marshall, a schools spokeswoman.
Before working in District 6, he worked in Bronx high schools, where no one noticed anything out of the ordinary about him, Marshall said.
"So this appears to have happened suddenly and without any kind of a warning that the school system would have seen," she said.
An emergency meeting will be held in the school cafeteria at 9 a.m. today for parents, Marshall said. The superintendent has already met with many of the parents of injured children at the hospital, she said.
STAFF WRITER
June 14, 2002
Twenty first-grade students went to a hospital yesterday after their substitute teacher went berserk in their Washington Heights classroom, smacking them with a broomstick, pulling their hair and twisting their ears, police said.
Danilo Nuñez was breaking up a fight between two 6-year-olds at PS 4 at 500 W. 160th St. when he hit one of the children with a broom, police said. Two or three other students came to that child's aid, police said, and Nunez, 57, allegedly began smacking them with the broom, shouting "Shut up! Shut up!"
About 20 other students joined in the fray, which school safety officers broke up, police said.
"Kids are saying he lost control of the classroom," one police source said. "Two or three kids came to his [the first child's] aid, and then the entire class got involved."
The injured children were treated at Columbia Presbyterian Center, police said. Of those, 11 had visible injuries, such as black eyes and bruises to the neck, back and shoulders, police said.
Students and a teacher interviewed outside PS 4 last night said the incident started when some children threw crayons around the classroom. Nuñez screamed at the students and the incident escalated.
Maria Lopez, a fifth-grade teacher at the school, said she was surprised when she heard about the incident. "I don't know what could have put him in that position. Only he would know," she said.
Nuñez was taken into custody around 1:40 p.m. He was being questioned at the 33rd Precinct station house, police said.
Nuñez, of 288 Grand Concourse in the Bronx, was placed on the Board of Education's "ineligible" list, a spokeswoman said, meaning he will no longer be permitted to work as a teacher.
It was unclear how long he'd been working as a substitute, but he's worked about 65 days this school year, at least three in District 6, where PS 4 is located, said Catie Marshall, a schools spokeswoman.
Before working in District 6, he worked in Bronx high schools, where no one noticed anything out of the ordinary about him, Marshall said.
"So this appears to have happened suddenly and without any kind of a warning that the school system would have seen," she said.
An emergency meeting will be held in the school cafeteria at 9 a.m. today for parents, Marshall said. The superintendent has already met with many of the parents of injured children at the hospital, she said.
