A classroom incident involving a 3-year-old escalated into a criminal case months later.
HARTFORD, CT – A 61-year-old preschool teacher is facing a felony charge after investigators say she dragged a young student by his feet out of a classroom and left him alone in a hallway for several minutes at a Hartford magnet school.
Stacy Vaughn-Marcella was charged with one count of risk of injury to a child following the Dec. 1 incident at the University of Hartford Magnet School. According to a probable cause affidavit, the allegation surfaced the next day when a woman who picked the child up from school reported learning about the incident and later reviewed classroom video.
Witness accounts and video evidence
The affidavit states the incident occurred shortly before nap time, when the child became upset after being unable to join a play station and began throwing items. Witnesses told investigators the situation escalated as the boy climbed onto a bookshelf and started “tearing things off the wall.”
After he was helped down, multiple witnesses said Vaughn-Marcella took the child to the ground. “Dragged him by the feet out the door to a common area,” witnesses told police, according to the affidavit, where he remained for five to 10 minutes before the classroom door was shut.
A paraeducator reported seeing the child kicking on the ground before Vaughn-Marcella grabbed his legs and dragged him approximately 10 to 12 feet out of the room. Surveillance footage reviewed by police captured part of the incident, though the view was partially obstructed. An officer noted the child appeared to be in “distress” after being left outside the classroom.
While in the hallway, the child “repeatedly threw a wooden object” at the classroom door, the report states. A staff member later found him “crying in a corner” and brought him to a behavior specialist.
Teacher response and school action
The child was later taken to Connecticut Children’s Medical Center after appearing dizzy and “not acting himself,” but doctors did not find injuries, police said.
Vaughn-Marcella denied intentionally dragging the child. She told investigators the boy “rolled his back on the floor and began kicking her with ‘all of his might,’” describing his behavior as a fit of “rage and anger.” She said she grabbed one of his legs to stop the kicking, but “he flailed and kicked her with a different foot.”
“As [the child] continued to kick in her direction, his body was moving on the floor,” Vaughn-Marcella told police, adding that when they reached the doorway, “she let him go out the door” and closed it. She said she kept him in the hallway because she believed he could harm other children and claimed she could monitor him through a glass door.
Vaughn-Marcella was arrested Jan. 22 and released on a $5,000 bond. She is scheduled to appear in court on April 29.
School officials said the teacher was placed on administrative leave immediately after the allegation was reported and will not return. “CREC Magnet Schools placed the individual on administrative leave in December, immediately after an allegation was made, and confirmed that the individual would not return to any CREC school after the individual’s arrest,” Superintendent Sasha Douglas said. “Families of students who worked directly with the staff member were notified of the leave in December, as soon as the investigation was opened.”
Douglas added, “At the direction of legal counsel, the school proceeded with broader communication once we were assured that it would not interfere with the integrity of the active investigation or internal personnel procedures.”
Parents of all students were not notified until late March, when an email referenced an arrest tied to an on-campus incident without identifying the teacher, prompting questions about the delay.
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