A former teacher found guilty of simple assault for causing a student to fall by kicking his chair must forfeit her license, a Northfield Municipal Court judge ruled Friday.
Kimberly Peschi was accused of causing the then-sixth-grader to hit his head after she kicked the chair he was leaning back in during lunch at Belhaven Middle School on Feb. 9, 2017.
She testified at trial in March that she was actually trying to right the chair, and that she would never intentionally hurt a child.
“Mrs Peschi kicked the back of my chair and I smashed my head on the floor,” the student testified of his memory of the day.
When he looked up, Peschi was standing over him: “That’s why chairs are for sitting not leaning,” he recalled her saying before she walked away.
But Peschi said she twice asked if the boy was OK, and that he said yes.
A video of the incident shows Peschi's actions intentionally caused the chair to fall, Judge Timothy Maguire found her guilty in May.
But he held judgement on what would happen to her teaching license.
On Thursday, Judge Louis Belasco granted the state's request to have it forfeited.
"Judge Belasco was extremely thorough and, based upon the facts, the video evidence and the previously guilty verdict, rightly decided that she forfeit her license," the boy's mother said.
