Teacher Is Charged With Assault
Woman Says Boy, 12, Grabbed, Pushed Her

By Theresa Vargas
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 17, 2008; B05

Maria Waugh, a 16-year teaching veteran, said she was only trying to defend herself against an out-of-control student.

But Fairfax County police charged the former sixth-grade teacher this week with assaulting a 12-year-old boy at Cameron Elementary School in the Alexandria area. Officer Camille S. Neville, a police spokeswoman, said yesterday that the incident happened about 1 p.m. Wednesday during class "after some discussion over the student's behavior."

The student was not injured, Neville said, but went home and told his parents, who called police.

Waugh, 42, of the 6000 block of Quander Road in the Alexandria area of Fairfax, was released after being issued a summons Thursday on misdemeanor assault charges, which are punishable by a fine of up to $2,500 and a year in jail.

Fairfax schools spokesman Paul Regnier said yesterday that Waugh no longer works for the school system. Waugh said she resigned. She began working for Fairfax schools in 1999, teaching at Riverside Elementary before going to Cameron Elementary in 2001.

Neville described the case as unusual.

But Waugh, reached at home by phone, said the incident began with a scenario familiar to many teachers: a student with behavioral issues who refused to follow directions.

Waugh said that she asked the student to complete a math worksheet and that he became upset. She said that she told him repeatedly to wait in the hall so they could discuss it but that he approached her instead.

"He walked up to my face and said, 'What are you going to do about it?' And that's when he grabbed my arm," she said, adding that he twisted her arm behind her back and pushed her up against a chair. "I had to get him off of me."

Waugh said she remembers swinging her arms and doesn't deny she probably hit him. But, she said, she doesn't know what else she could have done. She said she has bruises on her arm, a swollen hand and a missing fingernail from the encounter.

"I regret that all this stuff happened, but I had to get him off of me," she said, adding that she "loved" the student. At times, she said, the student could be "super, super sweet," doling out hugs.

His behavioral issues were known to school officials, she added.

"This is not a new situation," Waugh said. "Sometimes it's just hard to deal with kids that are so aggressive."

School officials said they could not comment on the student's behavior.

The student's parents could not be reached for their version of events because police and school officials did not identify him.

Waugh said she plans to hire a lawyer for when the case goes before a judge at the end of this month. She hopes to teach again.

"That was my career," she said. "I love working with the kids. It's what I do. It's what I do well."

Staff writer Michael Alison Chandler contributed to this report.