LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A Clark County School District teacher faces child abuse charges after several incidents including allegedly pinning a 5-year-old autistic student to a table, according to an arrest report.
Rima Villaret, 59, was arrested on Wednesday, Feb. 21, and booked into the Clark County Detention Center on three counts of child abuse or neglect, three counts of battery on a vulnerable person, and one count of false imprisonment, records showed.
On Feb. 21, officers were dispatched to Gilbert Magnet Elementary School after a report of a teacher pushing a student into a table and holding them down by the chest, the report said.
Las Vegas special education teacher arrested, faces child abuse charges
When officers spoke to a teacher’s aide for Villaret in a classroom designated for special needs students with autism between the ages of three and five she said on Feb. 12 she saw Villaret get angry with a student for making “loud squealing noises,” the report said.
This was typical for the student since they are autistic and nonverbal, according to the arrest report.
Villaret then “forcefully” threw the student onto a table and held them down by pushing on their chest with her left hand while yelling “Stop it,” repeatedly, police said.
Another teacher’s aide in the classroom then told Villaret to stop because she was hurting the student. Villaret then let go of the student and turned around and yelled, “Stop what?” according to the report.
About five hours later a teacher’s aide observed a fresh bruise on the 5-year-old student, according to the arrest report.
Later that day, another autistic student was having behavioral issues where they were pulling another student’s hair. In response, Villaret pulled the student by the arm and placed them underneath her desk for a “time out,” police said.
Villaret then sat in a chair in front of the desk, preventing the 3-year-old student from leaving, and kept them there for about three minutes, according to police.
The next day, a teacher’s aide saw Villaret drag a 4-year-old autistic student through the lunch room by the back of their shirt collar, causing it to wrap tightly around the student’s neck, police said.
When speaking with detectives, Villaret changed her story several times for the first two incidents and denied the third incident, according to the report.
When advised that the lunchroom incident was caught on surveillance video she said, “If it was on camera then it must have happened,” and “If it’s there, it’s there,” the report said.
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