TUCSON, Arizona — A Tucson mother was recently arrested for assaulting her child's teacher. It happened last week at an eastside charter school.
According to the court document News 4 Tucson recently obtained, the mother entered the school, went to the classroom and began assaulting the teacher.
The vicious attack by the parent occurred at Da Vinci Tree Academy on May 9.
Over the weekend, the parent was arrested and taken to the Pima County Jail where she appeared in video court.
Angelica Munoz, 46, was charged with aggravated assault of a school employee, aggravated assault victim under 15, and disruption of educational institution.
Pretrial services suggested she should be released to their custody.
The public defender's office agreed.
"She has ties to Tucson," a representative said. "Releasing her to pre-trial services with the condition she can't return to the school should be enough."
The prosecutor disagreed.
"Telling her not to return to the school ground does not solve the issue," the prosecutor said. "It was a pretty violent attack. I'm pretty concerned."
The staff and students at Da Vinci Tree Academy are also concerned. Da Vinci Tree is a charter school with students from kindergarten through 8th grade. There are about 200 students.
The principal released the following statement:
The attack on Monday the 9th against our teacher Middle School Science Teacher happened around 8:16 AM right after our normal student drop-off time. As a community school, we always welcome parents in to their children’s classrooms. When this parent came in, it did not occur to us that Ms. Munoz would have violent intentions towards the teacher or students.
Immediately after the attack on Monday the 9th, we assessed everyone’s injuries and called TPD. As the physical injuries were not serious, we immediately requested the Crisis Response Team’s assistance (for student mental health) and began a full investigation of the attack and the allegations that prompted the attack. We are serious about the safety of our students. Our exhaustive investigation included recorded testimony from students and staff as well as several days of security camera footage from the classroom. Our investigation, which has been turned over to TPD, has found that there was no wrongdoing on the part of the science teacher or any other members of staff.
Our science teacher has been offered all the paid time off he needs to recuperate both mentally and physically from this vicious attack. The Crisis Response Team has offered our students their support and services over the course of several days to help our students process what they witnessed on the 9th.
We would like to thank the heroic actions of our fourth grade teacher Ms. Micaela Trujillo and our two brave eighth graders who stepped in to protect our science teacher during the attack. We would also like to thank TPD and the Crisis Response Team for their fast action and assistance. Finally, we’d like to thank KVOA for shining a light on this very real issue of violence against educators.
News 4 Tucson spoke to parents whose children tried to help the science teacher.
"I understand if a parent has a problem, depending on what the accusations are," parent Mish Draves said. "You know, mama bear comes if you will, but to do it in a classroom full of children, that's irritating."
"It was completely unacceptable and easily avoidable," another parent said. "I mean, it's a school. Why wouldn't you be able to talk to the teachers or the principal?"
The teacher is back in class and the student, whose mother is accused of assault, has not returned to school.
Investigators have not said what caused the attack.
Munoz was released to pre-trial services and posted a $5,000 bond. We reached out to the public defender's office and have not heard back.
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