Florida teacher pinned nonverbal autistic student to the ground and slapped his face: police

A Volusia County, Florida teacher is facing child abuse charges after allegedly assaulting a nonverbal autistic student, reported WESH on Thursday.

"According to an affidavit from Orange City police, Kelly Falcon, 49, is being charged with child abuse after an incident that took place Feb. 8," reported Chelsea Robinson. "Documents state that officers were called to River Springs Middle School for a report that Falcon slapped an 11-year-old non-verbal student with autism."

Per WESH, police then examined surveillance footage, where they "observed Falcon yank the student's arm, forcibly hold him down, and finally slap him in the face."

According to the report, witnesses told police that they had seen Falcon "get physical" with students before, and upon questioning, she admitted she might have hit the boy "because he was in her face."

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Other controversies have rocked schools in Florida, with one teacher at a South Florida charter school using a whistle to disrupt Muslim students from praying.

This comes amid a broader controversy about the future of education in Florida, with a controversial Republican-backed bill forcing numerous schools to pull books off of shelves while they wait for a "review" of their content. Gov. Ron DeSantis has falsely claimed that the empty school shelves were "manufactured" by teachers' unions to make him look bad.