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School District Employee Arrested for Abusing 5-year Old Autistic Child

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BRADENTON – A teaching assistant at G.D. Rogers Garden-Bullock Elementary School was arrested on child abuse charges this week. Quintin Jerrard Bradley, 40, of Ellenton, was caught on surveillance video repeatedly hitting a nonverbal autistic child in the face with a large yoga ball.

According to a Bradenton Police Department report, Bradley used a two-foot wide yoga ball with a handle, throwing it at a crying 5-year-old student from about seven feet away. He was witnessed by Michael Hess, a phys-ed teacher at the school, who was on the same playground.

Video shows Bradley standing around seven feet away from the student and hitting him four times with the ball with enough force to knock him back into a chain link fence that secures the playground.

The teacher of the special needs class that Bradley was assisting, Vicki Hampton, told police she did not see the incident but, according to the report, can be seen in the video sitting next to the student at the time.

Bradley told police he was only doing it playfully, in an attempt to engage the child, which Hess said he did not believe to be the case from what he had witnessed. Other school officials reportedly described Bradley as having been "brash" and "inappropriate" with students.

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