BRADENTON, Fla. (WFLA) — The teacher’s aide who was involved in tying up a nonverbal boy with autism to a chair along with another teacher at a Bradenton elementary school has been arrested, according to police.
Bradenton police announced Friday night that Taylor Internicola, 39, was in custody.
Internicola was the teacher’s aide for Exceptional Student Education (ESE) teacher Carina Chindamo, 31, at G.D. Rogers Garden-Bullock Elementary School.
Last Friday, surveillance footage caught the two staff members using a nylon walking rope to tie the 7-year-old child’s wrist together, which they wrapped around the leg of a chair on the playground. They then took turns sitting on the chair, appearing to use their weight to hold it down.
“They put him in harm’s way worse than anything, with him being tied up, him having seizures, things that go on with him…” the boy’s mother Tekeila Jones said. “If you guys didn’t—couldn’t handle my child, you should have just called me.”
Police said the boy was restrained for nearly an hour on the ground behind the chair.
“He untied himself, then was re-tied up for another 30 minutes or so,” Meredith Censullo with the police department said. “So, in total, he was tied behind the chair in the playground for about an hour.”
Chindamo is currently being held in the Sarasota County Jail and is charged with false imprisonment of a child under 13 years old.
Police have not disclosed if Internicola will be facing the same charges as Chindamo.
