Autistic student left with busted cheek after teacher slammed pupil against wall in violent caught-on-camera discipline: report

A shocking video captured a New Jersey teacher slamming an autistic student against a wall and shoving him onto the floor — an incident that reportedly left the pre-teen’s face scraped and bruised.

Zaire Smith, 11, was restrained with his arms behind his back for 15 minutes for the crime of throwing a chair inside the Mount Carmel Guild Academy’s “problem-solving room,” WPIX TV reported.

“It was very hard to watch my son on the floor, his legs kicking out. And if you could zoom in on his face, he’s squinching his eyes and his fingers pointed out, and you could tell he was in pain. And I felt that,” his mother, Niasia Smith, told Pix 11, alleging that the West Orange school tried to cover up what she called “assault.”

The distressing video of the April incident shows the teacher wrestling with Zaire, pushing him up against a wall before slamming him down on the floormat.

The unidentified teacher pinned the boy — who has autism and ADHD — using his own body weight for roughly a minute before yanking him back, speaking with him briefly, and tackling him back down on the ground.

The educator restrained Zaire in different positions on the ground for roughly 15 minutes as other teachers walked in and out of the room, where at least two other students were sitting and watching on.

“He said that he could not take a deep breath. He was not able to breathe in — that’s what he said, in and out, he was not able to breathe,” Smith told the outlet.

The teacher eventually loosened his grip on Zaire, but continued holding onto him for another 15 minutes, the video shows.

At one point, a nurse came into the room to tend to the young boy, who had sustained a rug rash on his upper cheek and bruising around near his eyes.

Smith claims the school did not alert her about the incident until she arrived to pick up her son and saw his injuries — but the school tried to pin the blame on him.

“They ushered me into a room … They were saying that he caused it to himself, that he was moving when he had to be restrained, that he rubbed his face on the rug,” she recalled.

To add even more insult, the horrifying incident started because the pre-teen was drawing a card in class that was taken away.

Zaire was taken to the problem-solving room after becoming distressed in the classroom.

That’s when he tossed the chair, which bounced off the wall and landed on the teacher who ended up restraining the boy for for 15 minutes.

“I was feeling angry and the side of my face hurt,” Zaire told the outlet about how he felt in the moment.

According to the Smiths, the incident is not the first they’ve experienced at Mount Carmel Guild Academy, which has been teaching students with disabilities for more than 51 years.

The administration did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.

The family has hired an attorney and plans on filing a lawsuit. Last week, they also met with members of the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, though it’s unclear whether charges will be filed.

“I feel like they could have spoken to him,” Smith said.

“They could have used a de-escalation verbally. It didn’t have to escalate to where someone had to physically assault my son. They didn’t have to do that.”