A former Aspire Academy teacher in Gary got two weekends in jail and just under 1.5 years probation Thursday for beating a 6-year-old boy with Down Syndrome with a ruler.
Bernadine Cousins, 54, pleaded guilty in August to battery resulting in bodily injury to a person less than 14 years of age, a Level 5 felony.
Her sentencing was delayed last week after Judge Samuel Cappas wanted to see the classroom video. Lawyers gave different explanations on how Cousins took the boy to a bathroom.
Deputy Prosecutor Milana Petersen said he was “dragged,” while defense lawyer Andreas Kyres said she walked him. The video showed she held his hand and led him to the bathroom with his arms outstretched.
Petersen argued the boy’s “body language” showed he didn’t want to go.
Kyres argued the boy’s behavior that day was difficult for a paraprofessional to manage and she called in Cousins, his former teacher, for help.
Cousins “truly regrets her actions that day,” he said.
As he read excerpts from multiple letters from her family and former co-workers, Kyres appeared to show emotion in parts that detailed special needs kids succeeding. It was something that hit close to home, he said.
Kyres said previously that Cousins surrendered her teaching license.
Options to go to an alternative court, like veterans’ court or mental health treatment court, were never offered. Cousins was a U.S. Navy veteran, he said.
“She should know better,” Petersen countered.
The boy had separation anxiety, and was scared of teachers, she said. He had to be homeschooled at one point. She asked for 2.5 years in prison.
Cousins said she was reeling from a student’s death, her husband’s and father’s death in a short period of time. She turned to alcohol to “numb” herself. That day, she snapped, Cousins said.
“I didn’t think I could bear to lose anything else,” she said. “I exercised terrible judgment.”
Cappas said it was “sad and heart-wrenching” for both sides. He noted the law let parents punish their own kids below an “egregious” level.
Cousins had paid a price by giving up her teaching license, getting fired, and had taken steps for therapy and treatment. That was more “than I’ve seen in the past 11 years” on the bench, he said.
After the hearing, the boy’s grandmother said Cousins and the paraprofessional should have been held to a higher standard. The Post-Tribune is not identifying his family to protect the boy’s privacy.
“He still has his ups and downs,” she said, of his recovery.
Now 8, he is a happy kid, and an animal lover, she said.
“How can you mistreat a baby and it’s ok,” the woman said. “They put parents in jail for slapping a child. We are supposed to trust (a teacher).”
Cousins’ actions were “premeditated,” she said. “She lied up there (in court).”
Police interviewed the mother on Nov. 29, 2022. She told police that she saw “several red welts” on her 6-year-old son’s upper left thigh and buttocks, according to the affidavit.
The child told her Cousins, his teacher, hit him with a “brown stick,” making gestures like he was hitting something.
Katia Pharms, his paraprofessional, told police the boy needs “constant supervision.” Her job was to stay with the boy and “keep him focused” in class, or take him when he needed a break or “redirection.” She walks with him to different classes and to the nurse’s office for bathroom breaks.
He was a “handful,” but a “very sweet, loving boy,” she told police.
School staff told police the boy started acting up after a 1 p.m. school assembly that day. At the nurse’s office around 2 p.m., he “refused to listen” and ran around the office.
After he went into the nurse’s bathroom, the child refused to exit. Pharms said she went to Cousins’ room for help, watching the Kindergarten class while Cousins went to the nurse.
Security footage showed Cousins tucked a ruler inside her sleeve around 2:27 p.m., the affidavit alleges.
Cousins brought him back to her class. Then the child goes into the bathroom with her.
Six minutes later, they exit, with the boy appearing “very reserved” and another staffer sitting him back at a desk. Cousins put the ruler back on her desk at 2:37 p.m.
The charter school is located at 4900 W. 15th Ave. in Gary.
