A former Manatee County teacher’s aide is in custody in connection to a 7-year-old, non-verbal student being tied up to a chair after the Bradenton police issued two arrest warrants on Feb. 6 for her and a teacher.
Taylor Internicola, 39, was taken into custody Friday evening on a false imprisonment charge of a child under age 13 three days after a warrant was issued for her arrest, according to an updated post on the Bradenton Police Department’s Facebook page.
In a news release posted to Facebook on Feb. 6, detectives informed the community they obtained warrants to arrest Carina Chindamo, 31, and Internicola. Both women worked at G.D. Rogers Garden-Bullock Elementary School.
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Chindamo, an Exceptional Student Education teacher, was taken into custody the evening of Feb. 6.
Surveillance video from the school’s playground from Feb. 2 showed Internicola, a teacher’s aide, bring the 7-year-old student to the playground, according to a probable cause affidavit. The video shows the student’s left hand was restrained by a nylon walking rope which Internicola then wrapped around the leg of a chair that Chindamo was sitting on.
It appeared that Chindamo used her weight to keep the student from getting free, according to the news release. The 7-year-old sat on the ground behind the chair for approximately an hour. About 30 minutes into sitting on the ground, according to the affidavit, the student was able to free their hand, but continued to sit behind the chair. When Chindamo noticed the student was not restrained, she tied the student’s hands up again using three different knots, according to the affidavit.
The Manatee County School District released a statement previously indicating that school district officials were fully cooperating with law enforcement during the investigation and that both women had been removed from the classroom immediately after being notified about the incident.
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The employees were reassigned to another district location where students are not present, according to the statement.
District officials called the situation “disturbing and reprehensible” and stated that the district’s highest priority is student safety.
Gabriela Szymanowska covers the legal system for the Herald-Tribune in partnership with Report for America. You can support her work with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America. Contact Gabriela Szymanowska at gszymanowska@gannett.com, or on X: @GabrielaSzyman3.
Source: heraldtribune.com