A Farmington elementary school teacher was placed on administrative leave after being charged with battery of a fourth grade student.
Kathleen Kern, 33, of Aztec, was charged with a misdemeanor battery in connection to a Jan. 15 incident at McKinley Elementary School, 1201 N. Butler Ave.
Farmington Police were called to the school at 5:11 p.m. “in reference to a teacher reportedly kicking a desk into a student,” according to the arrest affidavit.
Kern, who was described by the principal as being a “leader for other teachers,” reportedly walked into the classroom of Elisabeth Walsh, a substitute teacher and complained her students were being noisy and acting like “wild animals,” the affidavit states.
It was then that Kern allegedly “had her fists clenched” as she “‘angrily’ and ‘quickly’ walked” to a desk, where Esaia Marquez, a fourth grade student, was “laughing and either drawing, writing or doing his work,” according to the affidavit.
Walsh told police that Kern, using a “front kick” motion, “‘kicked the crap out of it,’ causing the desk to collide with Mr. Marquez' chest,” according to the affidavit.
Marquez reportedly told his mother “that Ms. Kern came into his class, and kicked his desk, causing the desk to tip him backwards.” He stated “the desk fell on top of him, striking him in the chest,” the affidavit states.
Police reportedly saw the injury and described it as being bruised and “located on his chest starting from his sternum and extending to his left side,” the affidavit states.
The child was taken to Aztec Urgent Care, where a doctor reported that “nothing was broken,” according to the child’s mother, Cassandra Marquez.
A student questioned by Principal Becky Ferris reportedly stated the desk “hit him (Esaia) where your heart is,” the affidavit states.
Ferris confirmed that everyone questioned “had the same story,” the affidavit states.
Ferris also reportedly told police that when she questioned Kern, the teacher stated that she “‘lightly tapped’ the desk with her foot, and ‘he did not fall, nothing fell,’” the affidavit states.
Ferris also told police that when Kern was sent home, she was “crying uncontrollably,” according to the affidavit.
When police went to question Kern at her home, they discovered “the residence provided in her documentation for the school does not exist,” but when they called her phone number she stated that she lives in Aztec and “had not updated her information with the school yet,” the affidavit states.
Kern, who has been employed at the school since 2019, would not answer questions without the presence of her attorney, Victor Titus.
Kern waived her arraignment on Jan. 21 in Farmington Magistrate Court, and her pretrial hearing was set for Feb. 18 in Magistrate Stanley King’s courtroom.
