A student at a Council Bluffs elementary school claims he was injured by a teacher in class last week. The nine-year-old says the teacher dumped the contents of a desk on top of him while he was lying on the floor. Martha Bruckner, superintendent for Council Bluffs Public Schools, says the alleged incident happened May 15th at Pusey Elementary.
"We were not able to investigate it because we didn’t know about it until Monday of this week. Immediately, we started an investigation. We were not aware of the alleged injury to the child until yesterday," Bruckner say, "we definitely have been investigating and will continue take it very seriously."
The extent and nature of the child’s injuries have not been disclosed, nor have the names of the student or the teacher. Bruckner says it apparently happened during class. "We’re aware of the fact there were students in the room and that some of them have come forward with some information," Bruckner says, "but I can’t tell you exactly what that is."
Council Bluffs police were notified of the incident on Wednesday. She says the incident would have been investigated sooner but the child apparently didn’t tell his mother until last weekend. Bruckner says the incident will be thoroughly reviewed.
"Absolutely, we will," she says. "We take it very, very seriously anytime anyone suggests any of our employees have done something that’s inappropriate." The boy’s mother reportedly notified the school earlier that he might be "grumpy" as he’d had a reaction to medication he was taking for poison ivy. The boy says the teacher yelled at him for not doing his math homework, then dumped the desk on him. The last day of school in Council Bluffs was yesterday (Thursday). The teacher was put on paid leave on Wednesday.