Florida Teacher Severely Beats Boy

(Deltona, Florida) A 44-year-old teacher at Trinity Christian Academy, Carmen Rivera-Diaz, has been accused of severely beating a 12-year-old boy.

Rivera-Diaz has been charged with aggravated child abuse.

According to a charging affidavit, a deputy was dispatched to Rivera-Diaz's Kendall Court home at 5 p.m. Monday after someone from California called to report the child had been beaten with a broomstick. The relationship of the child to the suspect was blacked out in the report.

Investigators found the boy nervous and shaken at the home. He said Rivera-Diaz struck him several times on his body with the broomstick. The stick was 24 inches long and had rusty and jagged ends, the deputy wrote in his report.

The boy had cuts on his right shoulder. A 3-inch cut appears to have been caused by the broomstick, the report shows.

Rivera-Diaz told deputies she became enraged when she returned home from work Monday and discovered the boy had opened the door to the person who was repossessing her car. She said she disciplined the child with a stick, the report states.

Rivera-Diaz was booked and released under a pre-trial release program.