Las Vegas teacher grabbed first-grader by neck, police report says
An elementary school teacher accused of child abuse grabbed a student by the neck after he refused to clean up his crayons, according to statements in a Clark County School District police affidavit.
A 6-year-old student at Cunningham Elementary School told his father that his first-grade teacher, Suzanna Raygoza-Rosen, choked him on Nov. 9 after he threw a pencil and his crayons on the floor, according to the affidavit.
“He said he couldn’t breathe and she also hurt his shoulder,” CCSD police wrote in the affidavit.
Raygoza-Rosen, 34, grabbed him by the hand and told the 6-year-old boy to clean up his mess, students in her class told police.
The students reported seeing the teacher grab the boy by his shoulder and his neck after he misbehaved, the affidavit said. One student reported the boy couldn’t speak while she grabbed his neck with one hand.
She denied purposefully grabbing him by the neck and seeing bruises or marks on him, the affidavit said.
The teacher told police she grabbed the boy by the chin and lifted his head to make him face her.
“You need to look at me,” Raygoza-Rosen told the student, according to the affidavit.
The boy sat on the ground and didn’t get up or clean up his belongings when she asked him to do so, Raygoza-Rosen told police. The student stood up but threw himself back onto the floor while she held him with both hands under his armpits, she said.
An official from the Clark County Department of Family Services photographed slight bruising and redness near the boy’s neck and throat, the document said.
Prosecutors charged Raygoza-Rosen last week with one count of misdemeanor child abuse. She is out of police custody on bond, court records show.
Raygoza-Rosen has been “assigned to home” since November, while the investigation was continuing at the school, 4145 Jimmy Durante Blvd., school police said. She was hired by the district in 2007.
She is the third teacher this year arrested on a child abuse charge and the 10th district employee arrested overall.
Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter.
