Miami police arrest 7-year-old boy who punched teacher for punishing him

A 7-year-old boy landed in cuffs in Miami last week after he pummeled his teacher with punches during a cafeteria rebuke, according to police and reports.

The first-grader “attacked the teacher by repeatedly punching her on the back” after he was caught playing with his food Thursday, a police report claims. The teacher took the boy out of a cafeteria at the Coral Way K-8 Center to punish him, WSVN-TV reported.

Both fell to the ground during the scuffle and the boy grabbed the teacher's hair.

Police were called to the school, and the boy was arrested.

An officer then walked the restrained boy into a local hospital for a psychiatric evaluation as his dismayed mother, Mercy Alvarez, followed with a camera in hand.

“This is police abuse; a whim of the officer, because my son was calm when they came to look for him,” Alvarez told El Nuevo Herald after the incident.

This is the second time in three months that officers were called to the school over the boy’s tantrums, police said. He reportedly kicked a teacher in November.

Alvarez’s son, who was not identified, appeared calm throughout the footage shared by the Miami Herald. He was later discharged from the hospital
He was taken there under the Florida Mental Health Act, which allows for involuntary exams.

Miami-Dade Schools Police Chief Ian Moffett said in a statement that the agency’s response was standard to “prevent his erratic and violent behavior from bringing further harm to others or himself.”

The teacher is planning to press charges against the boy, the Herald reports.