A former Aspire Academy Kindergarten teacher was charged this week with hitting a 6-year-old mostly non-verbal boy with a ruler on Nov. 18, 2022, court documents allege.
Bernadine Cousins, 53, was charged Feb. 28 with three counts of battery. She posted a $2,000 bond on March 3.
Her initial hearing is set for March 13 before Magistrate Mark Watson.
“While employee privacy rights prevent me from sharing specific details, what I can share is that they are no longer employed at the school. We take all allegations of child abuse seriously, and the well-being of the children in our care remains our priority,” National Heritage Academies Communications Director Leah Nixon wrote via email.
According to Indiana’s teacher license lookup, Cousins had a professional teacher’s license that was set to expire in 2026.
Police interviewed the mother on Nov. 29. She told police that she saw “several red welts” on her 6-year-old son’s upper left thigh and buttocks, according to the affidavit.
The child told her Cousins, his teacher, hit him with a “brown stick”, making gestures like he was hitting something.
Katia Pharms, his paraprofessional, told police the boy needs “constant supervision”. Her job was to stay with the boy and “keep him focused” in class, or take him when he needed a break or “redirection”. She walks with him to different classes and to the nurse’s office for bathroom breaks.
He was a “handful”, but a “very sweet, loving boy”, she told police.
School staff told police the boy started acting up after a 1 p.m. school assembly that day. At the nurse’s office around 2 p.m., he “refused to listen” and ran around the office.
After he went into the nurse’s bathroom, the child refused to exit. Pharms said she went to Cousins’ room for help, watching the Kindergarten class while Cousins went to the nurse.
Security footage showed Cousins tucked a ruler inside her sleeve around 2:27 p.m., the affidavit alleges.
Cousins brought him back to her class. The child goes into the bathroom with her.
Six minutes later, they exit, with the boy appearing “very reserved” and another staffer sitting him back at a desk. Cousins put the ruler back on her desk at 2:37 p.m.
The charter school is located at 4900 W. 15th Ave. in Gary.
