Teacher charged with strangling student in front of class

“He has horrible flashbacks. He clenches all up, just builds up and cries. He is just so sad,” mother Nicole Brennan said.

Brennan says her son Ayvian’s whole world changed last week when the incident allegedly happened.

“My son had marks all over his neck. You could see where he was choked. He had broken blood vessels,” Brennan said.

Fall River police told FOX25 that when the school resource officer showed up, she saw the 62-year-old teacher “straddled on him with his hands around Ayvian’s neck.”

“He then picked my son up off the floor, slammed him to the cement, hits his head off the floor, and told him if he fights him back, he will punch him in his face. And choked him around his neck,” Brennan told FOX25.

Brennan said the incident started after her son and another student were playing, and the teacher didn’t like it.

“Other students were screaming, ‘Oh my god! Oh my god! Look at what he did!’” Brennan said.

She says her son is traumatized and now has a hard time trusting people.

The teacher now faces strangulation assault and battery charges and is scheduled to appear in court later this month.

On Thursday, the child will have a forensic interview, something his mom says no child should have to go through. 

FOX25's Stephanie Coueignoux spoke with the Talbot Middle School principal over the phone. The principal said the man involved was a substitute teacher and not a full-time employee of the district. As soon as the district learned of the incident, the man was immediately terminated.