Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Tamera Williams Calhoun, 45, was arrested yesterday and charged with child abuse without great bodily harm after allegedly grabbing a four-year-old by the ear and pulling him out from under a table at Duval Early Learning Academy.

On August 13, the second day of school, a paraprofessional working in a preschool classroom at the school reported that the students were following along with a “Pokemon Yoga” video and spread around the classroom. She said she was sitting at a table, watching the children, and did not notice that the victim, a four-year-old boy with limited English proficiency who had not previously attended school, had crawled under the table. She said the victim was sitting quietly and not causing a disruption, and she didn’t know he was there until she heard a “blood-curdling scream” and saw Calhoun “aggressively” pull the child out from under the table by his ear and then force him into a chair. The witness said the child continued to scream and cry for several minutes, holding his injured ear. The witness reportedly took several pictures of the child’s ear with her phone, then left the classroom and reported the incident to administrators at the school.

The witness reportedly said Calhoun had been “rough” with students, grabbing them “aggressively” by their arms or wrists, over the first two days of school; she also said she had seen Calhoun “roughly grab” the victim by his forearm on the first day of school.

After the witness spoke with the principal, the principal removed the victim from the classroom and took him to the school nurse to check him for injuries. The principal reportedly told an investigator that when she asked the victim if he was okay, he said, “Play.” She said she took this to mean that he was not afraid to return to the classroom, so she sent him back to class. She said she saw an “old” injury to the victim’s ear and determined it to be unrelated to that day’s incident, even though it was the same ear the witness said Calhoun had pulled.

The principal also interviewed Calhoun, who reportedly denied pulling the victim by the ear and said the victim was screaming under the table, so she pulled him out by his arm, but he may have bumped his ear on the table. The principal reportedly counseled the teacher that she should not pull students by the arm and allowed the teacher to continue teaching in the classroom.

The principal reported the incident to Human Resources and to the Department of Children and Families (DCF) but reportedly said there was no injury to the victim; DCF reportedly told the principal that the report would not be accepted, based on the information provided.

The principal reportedly spoke with the victim’s mother after school during a conversation that was described as “coincidental.” The principal reportedly told the victim’s mother that there had been an incident involving her son that day in the classroom, but she reportedly gave Calhoun’s account of the incident and did not mention the report from the witness. When a Gainesville Police Department Detective asked the principal why she did not tell the child’s mother what the witness had observed, the principal reportedly said she did not believe she had to tell the mother what the witness reported because DCF did not accept the report.

The detective went to the school the next day and reported that Calhoun was still teaching the class. She reported that there was a recent bruise on the child’s forearm as well as a “dark purple bruise on both the interior and exterior of the victim’s ear.” She also reported a small scratch on the interior of the victim’s other ear. The child’s mother reportedly said the child had none of those injuries when she dropped him off at school on the day of the incident.

The child was forensically interviewed on August 15, and he reportedly said Calhoun had grabbed his arm, causing his arm to hurt, and pulled his ear, causing his ear to hurt. He reportedly held his ear and twisted it to show what the teacher had done.

A medical team reportedly found a small bruise on the child’s forearm, bruising on the interior and exterior of one ear, and a small scratch on the inside of the other ear. The findings were determined to be positive for child abuse.

Post Miranda, Calhoun reportedly said she saw the child under the table and that he did not appear to be upset; she said the table has one “wobbly” leg, so it “may not have been safe.” She said she told the child to come out from under the table but could not remember whether he said anything in response. She reportedly admitted grabbing the child by the arm, pulling him out from under the table, and making him sit down in a chair. She said the child was crying and upset for a while and that he sat with the witness for a few minutes. She reportedly said he might have bumped his ear while she was pulling him out from under the table; the detective noted that this did not explain the bruising on both sides of the child’s ear.

The detective reported that she asked Calhoun if she thought it was appropriate to grab a child by the arm, and she said “No” and changed her story to say she actually grabbed the child by the hand.

Calhoun was arrested for grand theft in 2004 and completed a pre-trial intervention agreement, resulting in the charges being dropped. She was arrested in 2006 and entered a plea of nolo contendere to charges of possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia and was sentenced to one year of probation, with adjudication of guilt withheld. She was arrested again in 2007 for allegedly taking a recording device from the jail after visiting with an inmate, and her probation in the 2006 case was unsuccessfully terminated. She entered a plea of nolo contendere to the theft charge and was sentenced to 10 hours of community service and six months of probation, with adjudication of guilt withheld.

Judge Susan Miller-Jones set bail at $25,000, and Calhoun has been released from the jail.