Teacher accused of abusing 3 young students with autism

A Clark County School District teacher was abusive toward a trio of students with autism between the ages of 3 and 5, North Las Vegas police alleged in an arrest report.

Rima Villaret, a special education teacher at Gilbert Academy of Creative Arts, was arrested Wednesday on three counts of child abuse or neglect, and one count of false imprisonment, court records show.

The three alleged incidents, reported by Villaret’s aides, occurred earlier this month at the magnet school, 2101 W. Cartier Ave., police said.

An aide said that they saw Villaret get “angry” with a nonverbal 5-year-old who’d been making “squealing noises” the morning of Feb. 12, police said.

That person told police that the teacher pushed the student against a table, pinning the child with her hand while repeatedly yelling “stop.”

Another aide said that they witnessed the child’s feet dangling, and saw the first aide confront Villaret, the report said.

The second alleged incident occurred later that day, police wrote in the report.

Villaret pulled a 3-year-old by the arm and put the child in “time out” underneath a table, the report said.

“(The witness) stated that Villaret sat in the chair in front the desk preventing (the victim) from leaving,” the report said.

The witness told police that the “time out” had lasted about three minutes.

Villaret is also accused of dragging a 4-year-old student by their shirt’s collar at the school’s cafeteria on Feb. 13, police said.

“(The witness) stated that the shirt was wrapped tightly around (the victim), but it did not appear that the (victim’s) breathing was restricted,” police wrote.

Villaret denied abusing the children in an interview with police, who in turn wrote that “throughout the questioning, Villaret was not forthcoming and changed her story several times.”

She was arraigned Monday, and is next due in court on May 6, according to court records.

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.