ANTIOCH (KRON) – A teacher’s aide at an East Bay school serving developmentally disabled students has been in custody after a viral video appears to show her assaulting a 9-year-old Oakland boy.
Kamaljot Kaur, 26, was taken into custody at her home in Antioch.
According to Antioch police, officers on Wednesday morning responded to a child abuse report at the Tobinworld School located at 2330 Country Hill Drive in Antioch.
“Officers contacted and interviewed school staff members, other student witnesses, and the victim, a 9-year-old resident of Oakland,” police said in a statement.
The victim did not have any visible injuries or complaints of pain, according to police.
“After conducting interviews and reviewing the cell phone recording of the incident, Officers determined that a felony child abuse had occurred,” police said.
The viral video shows two males holding the boy above the floor, a woman then walks up to the child and purportedly strikes him on the side of the head. The video later appears to show the woman pushing the boy to the floor.TONIGHT AT 5, 6, 8 ON KRON – EXPANDED COVERAGE ON ANTIOCH SCHOOL INCIDENT
The clip ends with the boy standing behind a chair while the two bigger males laugh, one of them falling to the floor.MOBILE USERS WATCH VIDEO HERE
A former employee with the school, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the woman in the video is an employee at the school.
The employees seen in the video have not been identified.
In statement released by school officials, they say that police are investigating the incident at the Tobinworld School, located at 2330 Country Hill Dr. in Antioch.
“Tobinworld takes this event extremely seriously and will take all necessary actions once we have the full facts in this matter,” the school said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon.
An official with the Antioch Unified School District said that a support team was sent to the school to talk with students and parents.
“We take all instances of student safety seriously and will ensure that appropriate and decisive steps are taken as determined by the outcome of the investigation,” said district spokeswoman Nancy Billeci.
Tobinworld is a non-profit school for children and young adults with behavior problems, according to its website. “Typically students have been classified as severely emotionally disabled, autistic or developmentally disabled,” their site says.
On Wednesday, KRON received numerous reports about alleged abuse at the campus and links to the viral video which has garnered thousands of views since it was posted late Tuesday night.
The district released the following statement on Wednesday afternoon:
Earlier this morning, the District was notified that a video had been posted on social media involving Tobinworld 2 staff and students. Tobinworld 2 is a non-public school that contracts with school districts throughout the East Bay to serve students with Special Needs. AUSD has confirmed that Tobinworld 2 notified Law Enforcement and an investigation is currently under way. At this point we have determined that the student at the center of the video is not an AUSD student. Upon learning of this incident, Antioch Unified School District sent our staff members to Tobinworld 2 to provide support to our students and parents. We have also contacted the Contra Costa County Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) and asked that they look into the matter. We take all instances of student safety seriously and will ensure that appropriate and decisive steps are taken as determined by the outcome of the investigation.
Stay with KRON 4 News for more on this developing story.