NEW YORK (NY)
New York Post [New York, NY]
March 3, 2024
By Deirdre Bardolf
She was too cruel for school.
A Brooklyn Catholic school teacher allegedly put a 3-year-old student in a cardboard box inside a locked closet, and threatened the terrified child that the “Grinch” was coming for him, The Post has learned.
Alexis Breeden, the lead 3-K teacher at St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Academy in Windsor Terrace, was arrested on Feb. 28 and charged with unlawful imprisonment and endangering the welfare of a child, four weeks after allegedly imposing the twisted timeout, according to a criminal complaint.
“Simply put, there are no imaginable circumstances where this can be called anything but child abuse,” said John Elefterakis of Elefterakis, Elefterakis & Panek, which is working with the family of the child, who have requested anonymity.
“This incident is extremely troubling, and we intend to fully investigate and force accountability,” Elefterakis said.
On Feb. 2, the school nurse witnessed Breeden holding the handle of the storage closet door shut as a child cried inside, according to a complaint filed with the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.
The nurse told Breeden to open the door and when Breeden unlocked it, the nurse observed “a 3-year-old child crying inside the closet in a large cardboard box,” the complaint stated.
The freaky mask was kept in the classroom closet and had been used by the teacher for weeks to threaten kids, according to parents. “The Grinch is in there,” the teacher would tell the tots, according to a parent with knowledge of the incident.
The nurse reported the disturbing discovery and the K-3 program was immediately shut down as the city Health Department and NYPD began probes of child-abuse allegations.
The tax-payer-funded, city-run Universal 3-K program, which is located on Prospect Park West behind Holy Name of Jesus Church, reopened Tuesday.
Breeden, of Castleton Corners, Staten Island, was fired soon after the incident. She was charged with unlawful imprisonment and endangering the welfare of a child, according to the district attorney’s office. She pled not guilty and was released on her own recognizance, according to court records.
The Brooklyn diocese says it “took immediate action upon learning of a safe environment code of conduct violation,” according to the Catholic newspaper The Tablet.
“The child did not sustain any injuries and out of respect for the student, we will not provide any additional details about this incident,” a diocesan statement said.
The $6,600-a-year-tuition Catholic school serves about 280 students.
The shocking incident was allegedly not the only case of alleged bullying toward children at the school, which touts its nurturing parochial environment, according to Elefterakis.
“Unfortunately, our initial inquiry has revealed that this is not the first instance at this school where helpless children were subject to abusive behavior,” he said.
Parents bashed the school in online reviews for a pervasive “culture of bullying” among students and staff, teachers that make kids cry and a harsh “disciplinarian” principal, Stephanie Ann Germann.
Parents tell The Post that there have been concerns about Breeden since she started in 2020.
“It’s just outrageous and unacceptable that this could have happened in the first place,” said one parent, who pulled her son from the school last year over safety concerns. “The principal has been warned about this teacher’s behavior for years now.”
“We’ve had concerns since the beginning of the year,” another parent told The Post. “All the kids in her class started acting differently. They weren’t their usual 3-year-old selves anymore.”
Her 3-year-old is now on a waiting list for another school.
Another class parent said the scenario since February has been “horrific” and will have “lasting psychological consequences.” “It goes beyond one bad apple,” she wrote in a parent Facebook group.
“The school has completely ignored the parents in the affected class,” she added.
Another Windsor Terrace mom also pulled her son from the K-3 program over safety concerns as well as dissatisfaction with the teaching practices, she said.
“I also think about all the other kids who witnessed this,” she told The Post. “You never know how trauma affects small children’s brains … it’s very delicate with 3-year-olds.”
Breeden, 30, did not have a valid teaching certification until March 2021, according to state records, despite starting at the school in 2020.
“The emergency COVID license — which allowed teachers to work before passing the required exams amid pandemic-related delays — expired in August 2023 and no license was reissued for the current school year in which she was teaching.”
Breeden taught for four years before starting at SJWCA, according to the school’s social media, but it was not immediately clear where.
Principal Stephanie-Ann Germann in October told an education site that the school saw “consistent leadership turnover” in recent years with four principals in four years.
Germann described “lots of negativity within our parent culture and our student culture,” teachers leaving and low enrollment, according to an article from the social-emotional learning program Responsive Classroom. Germann employed the model, which she said helped increase collaboration and kindness, at SJWCA.
Breeden said she would not comment on the incident and her lawyer said he had no comment.