A gym teacher has been arrested for allegedly choking a 12-year-old student in the cafeteria of a New York City school.
Chester Hingle, 45, was taken into custody on Thursday and charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child and criminal obstruction of breathing, an NYPD spokesperson told The Independent.
The incident unfolded around midday on Thursday inside the cafeteria of the I.S. 217 School of the Performing Arts in the Bronx when Mr Hingle allegedly grabbed the boy by the sweater and put his hands around his neck, reported NY Daily News.
Police said the gym teacher then choked the boy for around five seconds before letting him go.
Officers were called to the school and Mr Hingle was taken to the 41st Precinct where he was charged.
The 12-year-old boy was taken to NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln as a precaution but did not appear to have sustained serious injuries and was released, police said.
It is not clear what happened in the lead-up to the incident.
One eighth-grade student at the school told NBC New York that he had never seen Mr Hingle lay his hands on a student before but had seen other students “go crazy”.
“It’s difficult in this school... because students go crazy over the years,” he said.
“A lot of fights and they talk back a lot.”
However, following Thursday’s incident, the student said that he would no longer feel comfortable in a classroom with Mr Hingle.
The New York City Department of Education (DOE) condemned the teacher’s actions as “completely unacceptable”, saying that he has been “reassigned away from the school and students pending the outcome of the arrest”.
If convicted, the department will seek to terminate Mr Hingle from his role, the DOE said.
“There is nothing more important than the safety and well-being of our students,” it said in a statement.
“This alleged behavior is completely unacceptable and will be fully investigated.”
