A New Castle day care teacher is accused of beating a child
NEW CASTLE, Ind. — A teacher at a New Castle daycare facility has been accused of beating a young student there.
Kara Christine Kressel, 39, of New Castle, was charged Tuesday in Henry 3 Circuit Court with battery on a person under 14, a Level 6 felony that carries up to 30 months in prison.
In an affidavit, an Indiana State Police trooper reported that he was first informed of the incident by the juvenile’s mother on September 14.
Two days earlier, Krisel “dropped (her daughter) off at nap time,” the mother said. at the Agape Learning Center, 3200 S. 14th Street.
She showed the ISP trooper a photo of “what appears to be a bruise on the juvenile’s left forearm,” and suggested it was “a thumbprint from when the juvenile was thrown to the ground.”
The mother said when she discussed the incident with school officials, she was told that Kreisel had been suspended for two days.
The mother said the punishment “was not enough” and she wanted to pursue criminal charges.
The police officer then interviewed another teacher at the school who said she “asked for help getting some of the juveniles in her classroom to lie down for nap time.”
According to the affidavit, the teacher said Kreisel came into the courtroom to help, “picked up the juvenile victim and asked her why she was causing so much trouble, and then proceeded to throw the juvenile onto the crib.”
The witness – who indicated that she did not believe the child was injured – said that Kreisel also threw “a blanket over the juvenile victim as if she were a dead body.”
That witness said the juvenile “is not a problem child, and if he had been asked about it, she would have responded to the request to lie down.”
The state trooper notified the Indiana Department of Children’s Services of the incident and on September 15 interviewed Kreisel.
She reported that when she arrived in the classroom on September 12, the other teacher was crying as she tried to “get the crib out for nap time.”
The room was “out of control,” Kreisel recalls, and the other teacher was “begging the kids to get up on (the cribs) and listen.”
Krisel — a former Muncie resident — said she “took over the room.”
She said the girl she was accused of hitting “kept moving on her bed” after she was told to lie down. Krisel told the state trooper she pushed the child toward the crib, later saying that “wasn’t really a push, it was just a push.”
According to the court document, Krisel admitted that she should not have touched the child, but added that she believed the incident had been “blown out of proportion.”
“Ms. Kreisel said it was a frustrating moment for her because she was trying to help a teacher control a room that was out of control, and (the other teacher) was crying,” the officer wrote.
A trial date has not yet been set in the 3rd Circuit Court case.
Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.
