Teacher attacked 7-year-old special-needs boy — but what happened next might be even more outrageous

In December 2015, Osman Couey, a public school teacher in Harlem, New York, shoved a 7-year-old special-needs child after the boy tried to re-enter Couey’s class. Couey had previously removed the child for disrupting the classroom.

Couey was convicted by a judge in Manhattan Criminal Court, who sentenced the teacher to 30 days in jail. Prior to sentencing Couey, the judge in the case, Steven Statsinger, said, “This was a completely unjustifiable use of force.”

Couey has had numerous complaints filed against him, including one filed in 2013 alleging Couey threw a student down a slight of stairs at the school, according to a report by the New York Daily News.

Despite these numerous incidents and the 30-day jail sentence, Couey is reportedly still receiving his salary, which the state’s Department of Education says totals $105,142 per year. Even worse, Couey has not been fired from his position.

Outraged parents, led by the special-needs child’s mother, Chantel Phinazee, have been fighting to have Couey fired, but media outlets say rules put into place by the teachers union in New York make it very difficult to permanently remove the tenured Couey.

According to WABC-TV, Phinazee says it took a month before the school notified her about the incident.

“I don’t trust this school,” Phinazee said to WABC. “Ya’ll waited a month to tell me, didn’t care at all about what was going on with my son. You kept it from me. So, I don’t trust them no more than I did before.”

“This behavior is deeply troubling, and we are seeking to terminate this teacher’s employment,” the New York Department of Education said, according to the New York Post. “He has been removed from the classroom and reassigned away from students.”