Cops: Teacher went too far (teacher sprays gas-passing child with air freshener)

New York Daily News | November 27, 2003 | Michele McPhee and Joe Williams

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A Brooklyn elementary schoolteacher was removed from class and arrested on assault charges yesterday after a 10-year-old student with Down syndrome complained she doused him with air freshener when he passed gas.

Jane Fasone, 58, a veteran teacher at Public School 72 in East New York, is accused of spraying the boy's buttocks and mouth and making him stand against a wall, sources said.

"It's hard to believe she would do something like that," said Phyllis Esposito, 55, Fasone's neighbor in Marine Park.

Esposito said Fasone, the married mother of two adult sons, has taught disabled children for years.

"She's a nice woman who goes to church every Sunday," Esposito said. Fasone refused to comment last night as detectives led her out of the Child Advocacy Center in downtown Brooklyn in handcuffs.

She was charged with third-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child, police said. She was being held last night pending an arraignment.

Esposito said Fasone had been looking forward to making dessert for a Thanksgiving meal at the home of one of her sons. Now she may be spending the holiday in jail.

She was removed from the Shepherd Ave. school at 1 p.m. yesterday and reassigned to a regional school office pending the outcome of an investigation and hearing, Department of Education officials said.

Witnesses told police and school investigators that the boy passed gas inside the teacher's fourth-grade classroom on Nov. 19 about 1:30 p.m. The teacher allegedly pulled back the boy's pants and sprayed aerosol air freshener at his buttocks, school officials said.

She also allegedly sprayed the chemicals at his mouth before pushing him against a wall and making him stand up for 11/2 hours - until the end of the school day, school officials said.

The boy told his parents of the incident on Friday, and his father went to speak to the school's principal Monday, sources said.

Brooklyn child abuse cops took over the investigation and interviewed Fasone and several other witnesses, sources said.

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What a strange story. Why did she spray his mouth? What a sicko.

[billorites]

What are the odds that we don't know half the story here?

[Old Professer]

About 50-50?

[Cicero]

Took her away in handcuffs? Making a kid feel bad isn't normally treated in this fashion. The normal procedure would be at most to suspend her until the matter was investigated. I agree, there's something more going on here.

[patton]

If a teacher, or anyone else, for that matter, were to spray air freshener in my mouth, I would be dead in five minutes.

But I have no idea what really happened here.

[Wumpus Hunter]

Shux - My 5th grade teacher went through many cans of air freshner on me. She never sprayed it in my face, but she always made a big production out of it, and asked if I was "born in a barn".

I was feared and respected clear through high school for my ability to combine SBDs, earth pounding follow-a-fudgies, and rapid fire bwappers.

[steplock]

Sorry, but taking the word of a downs syndrom child that the teacher spryed deoderizer into his mouth sounds a bit extreme - more like a LEARNED RESPONSE from the local school psyco-itrist.

She probalby DID spray around him to kill the odors, and maybe some drifted up to his face...

But this entire episode smacks of some type of P.C. Jack-booted reactionary overkill!

[Jeff Chandler]

There is defintitely more to this story than waht we see here.

I don't want to sound insensitive, but retarded children shouldn't necessarily be mainstreamed. They often need special attention, and it's not fair to them, the teachers, or the other children to expect them to be included in an otherwise normal clasroom.