BOCA RATON, Fla. (WFLA) – Boca Raton police say a day care teacher is under arrest after breaking a 3-year-old child’s leg because he was misbehaving in class.

According to a police affidavit, the child’s mother dropped her son off at the Early Learning Academy in Boca Raton around 7:15 a.m. on Jan. 10.

The boy’s father said staff members called him around 11 a.m. claiming the boy sustained a leg injury from kicking a metal chair. The father said he was told his son had a bump on his shin and did not think it was an emergency to pick up his son from the school.

The boy’s mother told detectives when she picked her son up around 3:45 p.m. the boy “appeared to be in a lot of pain. He was shivering, had urinated on himself and had not eaten,” according to a police report.

The boy told his mom he received the injury because his teacher Estefany Acosta, 24, sat on his leg because he was misbehaving.

According to the boy’s mother, the child was still in a lot of pain and could not walk or stand. The boy was taken to West Boca Medical Center where was diagnosed with a fractured leg.

Boca Raton police and the Department of Children and Families were contacted about the incident, and spoke to the owner of the Early Learning Academy, Jeneille Como, on Jan. 13.

Como told police Acosta was the only teacher in the classroom with the students at the time when the boy was injured.

According to Como, Acosta initially said the boy was misbehaving and suffered a leg injury when he kicked a metal chair.

However, when school administrators told Acosta that the classroom was under video surveillance, “she got nervous and changed her story. Acosta claimed that the child could have been injured when she accidentally fell on him,” the arrest report stated.

Police reviewed surveillance video from the room which showed Acosta telling the boy to sit down following an early return from recess.

When the boy refused, Acosta grabbed the child by the arm, lifted him off the ground, and carried him across the room.

Police said Acosta then put the child down on the floor facedown, and bent over him.

“It appeared that her right knee landed on top of the child’s right leg,” the arrest report stated. The child is immediately seen in the video holding his leg and does not stand or put weight on it.

When interviewed by detectives, Acosta said the child continued to misbehave and was spitting on the carpet and himself. According to police, Acosta admitted to detectives to carrying the boy across the room and putting him facedown on the carpet.

Acosta was arrested for aggravated child abuse and booked into the Palm Beach County Jail.

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