JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Duval County paraprofessional is being charged with child abuse for yelling, grabbing, shoving and spanking special needs children in a classroom at a local school, police said.
An arrest report did not name the school, but said that teacher’s aide Jeanette Lynn Akers, 64, abused the children who have “limited to non-verbal communications skills” in May.
Akers was booked into Duval County Jail on Wednesday on four counts of third-degree felony child abuse.
According to an arrest report from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, a witness described several incidents in which Akers verbally and physically abused students that were in her care in a classroom.
In one instance, Akers grabbed a student’s arms and shoved the student into a chair while yelling “stay put.”
Another time, she spanked a student on the child’s buttocks. When the student fought back, she placed the child in a chair in the corner, and kept shoving the students back into the chair when the child tried to get up.
On another occasion, Akers allegedly used a rolled up paper packet to hit children on their heads, shoulders and upper backs. When a student screamed, she told them to “shut up”, drew her arm back, and hit the child again.
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