Rockland teaching assistant who dunked special needs students in pool testifies in her own defense
The teaching assistant accused of endangering two children with autism when she dunked their heads in a pool testified in Rockland County Court Monday in her own defense in her bench trial.
The teaching assistant accused of endangering two children with autism when she dunked their heads in a pool testified in Rockland County Court Monday in her own defense in her bench trial.
Both the defense and prosecution had multiple lines of questioning for Catherine Rios, 54.
A colleague previously testified Rios dunked a non-verbal 7-year-old's head underwater at the pool at the Jesse Kaplan School on January 21st to get the child under control.
Another teaching assistant testified that minutes later, Rios came up behind a non-verbal 6-year-old and dunked him too.
Rios, who is facing two felony charges and two misdemeanor charges, described her actions much differently.
Rios, a 21-year-employee of the school, said of the first child "when he came to the pool, he was off" and hard to control.
Staff had alerted her to the child's medication change and how he was more active than usual.Rios said the boy dunked himself as she was guiding him away from a railing he was climbing on.
"He went under like he normally did," Rios said, "to get a mouthful of water" to spit out.
She said the boy then went to the middle of the pool and began biting his "puddle jumper" meant to help him float.
Then Rios and another employee tried to soothe the boy, she said, with compression therapy and rubbing his legs.
Regarding the second boy, Prince Wilson, Rios said she simply splashed the water in front of him and said "quiet" in a non-threatening tone.
That contrasts with an eyewitness account provided to the court by one of Rios's colleagues, a part-time teaching assistant, who said Rios came up behind Prince and dunked his head with both her hands.
Rockland Judge Kevin Russo adjourned proceedings at about 4 PM until 11 AM Tuesday.
The felony charges Rios is facing — two counts of Endangering the Welfare of an Incompetent or a Physically Disabled Person — could be worth up to seven years in prison each.
The defense and prosecution will make their closing statements Tuesday morning.
The case will then go to Judge Russo, not a jury, to render a verdict.
