MANHATTAN — A veteran teacher was arrested at an East Flushing elementary school Wednesday for assaulting a 6-year-old student, police said.
Substitute teacher Grace Peterson-Hagendorf, 59, of Flushing, was arrested at P.S. 22 Thomas Jefferson on Sanford Avenue about 10 a.m. Wednesday for pushing the young girl into a chair, the NYPD said.
Peterson-Hagendorf worked as a substitute teacher for first- and second-graders at the Flushing school and has taught at Queens elementary schools for more than three decades, her husband explained.
She is charged with assault an acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 years old, police said.
Peterson-Hagendorf, who did not immediately return a request for comment, taught elementary school for 35 years at P.S. 32 State Street in Queens and retired about two years ago, husband Arthur Hagendorf said. She still works as a substitute there, he added.
The longtime teacher has never had trouble with students or parents, her husband explained.
"I think she was falsely accused of this," Hagendorf said. "She would never hurt a child in any way, shape or form."
The DOE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
