http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20020614_252.html
— NEW YORK (Reuters) - A substitute teacher has been arrested for attacking school children with a broom handle in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, sending many of the six- and seven-year olds to the hospital with bruises and welts, police said Friday.
New York police charged Danilo Nunez, 56, with assault in the second degree after they responded to a call from Public School 4 in the northern end of Manhattan on Thursday afternoon, a police spokesman said. Nunez, who lives in the Bronx, is expected to be arraigned Friday afternoon.
About 20 of the 24 students from the class were taken to nearby Columbia-Presbyterian hospital with minor injuries, police said.
The New York Times reported that some children said they had their hair pulled and ears twisted by the substitute teacher. One student told the Times that Nunez became upset with students' unruly behavior.
A spokeswoman for the Board of Education said Nunez has been banned from working in New York's public school system, the largest in the nation.
"He is on the ineligible list and will never be hired again," said Catie Marshall, spokeswoman for the New York City Board of Education. "For the size of this system, with 80,000 teachers, this is a complete aberration and despicable."
Marshall said it was not immediately clear how long Nunez had been working as a substitute teacher in the system. She said the school met with concerned parents on Friday to try to assure them that this would not happen again.
