Court documents shed light on alleged teacher assault on students

CHESTERFIELD, Va. (WWBT) - Court documents are shedding more light on what allegedly went down inside a Chesterfield preschool classroom at the end of last year.

According to an affidavit on March 5, a parent of a three-year-old special needs student at Chester Early Childhood Learning Academy reported to police a teacher had assaulted her student and several others back in November.

The parent told police back on Dec. 16. The school notified her a teacher’s aid allegedly witnessed 57-year-old Lisa Harbilas assault several special needs students on Nov. 29 and Nov. 30.

The parent said she was told the teaching assistant notified the school administration and filed a report with Child Protective Services.

The CPS report allegedly states Harbilas grew frustrated with the students and began spanking the children, grabbing the kids by the back of the neck, pulling them to the floor and smacking them on their faces.

Once the report was filed on Dec. 1, Harbilas was suspended.

The document goes on to say the school notified the parent Harbilas would be returning to work on March 7.

The parent told police this interaction had negatively impacted her daughter’s behavior.

Once police obtained search warrants for a record of those events from Chesterfield County Public Schools, an officer found a separate report of Harbilas allegedly assaulting another student in August.

That report allegedly showed Harbilas pulled a student’s hair and prevented them from moving by placing her legs over the child.

A CPS referral was filed, and the school reprimanded Harbilas.

Chesterfield police said when the parent reported the incident to police in March, it was the first the department had heard about it.

Police said while the school is a mandatory reporter, they can report this type of assault to Chesterfield police or CPS.

They said by notifying CPS, they satisfied the requirement.