DELTONA, Fla. — A Volusia County teacher was arrested after being accused of child abuse after kicking a special education student.
- Holly Eicher has been charged with child abuse without great harm
- The 62-year-old woman allegedly kicked the boy with her heel
- There were previous claims of alleged abuse made against her
The incident happened Friday at Spirit Elementary School in Deltona. Multiple people told Volusia County Sheriff's Office investigators they allegedly saw 62-year-old Holly Eicher kick a 6-year-old boy in the school's lunchroom.
Volusia County deputies arrested Eicher, who is listed as an ESE teacher, on Tuesday and charged her with child abuse without great harm. She was placed on administrative leave.
NEW DETAILS: Spirit Elementary teacher Holly Eicher is charged with child abuse, accused of kicking a 6-year-old student with special needs in the lunch room of the Deltona school. The boy's father called 911 saying he noticed marks on the child, much more at 10 on @MyNews13 pic.twitter.com/nN9secXx6x
— Justin Soto (@JSotoNews13) February 20, 2020
Two witnesses told Volusia County Sheriff's Office investigators, documented in an incident report, that they saw Eicher kick the student in the school lunchroom on Friday.
An elementary school employee stated to investigators that Eicher told the student to finish his applesauce and he became uncooperative and began to scream at Eicher. The employee said Eicher started yelling at the student and wrapped her legs around his.
The employee told investigators they are trained to wrap their legs around the child, but said Eicher kicked the student back with her heel, "causing him to immediately cry and spit into Holly's face, but eventually calmed down and was escorted back to his classroom."
The student's father called authorities, saying, "He went to school without marks and came home later that evening and my wife and I noticed that he had marks on his shoulders when were we giving him a bath and we didn't know where they came from."
Spectrum News 13 reached out to Eicher to get her side of the story and left a voicemail. She has not yet gotten back to the news station.
Parents say this is unacceptable and are hoping Eicher is punished.
Spirit Elementary School parent Sarah Crumbles said she saw the boy's parents at the school when investigators came to speak to Eicher.
"You can see the furiousness of mom and dad, especially when you have a kid who is special needs who is not getting the quality care that we would expect," Crumbles said.
Another parent wants to see Eicher reprimanded.
"The kid can't defend himself. You're an adult, if you don't have the patience to do that or work in childcare, shouldn't be there at all," Patrick Abbott said.
This is not the first time the school district investigated Eicher for alleged child abuse. They looked into claims in 2015 and 2019. Both cases were closed and unsubstantiated.