Rome nursery educator suspended after surveillance records 63 slaps and threats to toddlers

Covert surveillance and suspension

Carabinieri officers from the San Giovanni station in Rome executed a judicial order suspending a 62-year-old municipal nursery educator from exercising public service. The precautionary disqualification was granted by preliminary investigations judge Paola Della Monica following a formal request submitted by the Rome Public Prosecutor's Office. Judicial authorities opened the proceedings after investigators gathered audiovisual evidence inside the municipal nursery school, documenting repeated physical assaults and psychological harassment. The recordings captured the teacher targeting children who were approximately three years old and unable to articulate the abuse verbally. Officers documented instances of toddlers being forcefully jerked by their arms, lifted off the floor, shoved down onto chairs, and struck with slaps to the head, nape, face, arms, and legs.

Catalogue of mistreatment and verbal abuse

The evidence gathered through ambient microphones and hidden cameras revealed a sustained pattern of hostility within the classroom. According to the prosecution's case file, investigators counted 64 instances of forceful pulling, 63 slaps, 21 threats, 10 direct insults, two curses, and two occurrences of unhygienic conditions imposed on the children. Alongside physical violence, audio feeds recorded continuous verbal degradation directed at the toddlers. The educator repeatedly called the children pigs and hens, threatened that she would disintegrate them, and told them that she would withhold water. She also used intimidating language during bathroom routines, telling children she would make them do the pool. In total, the investigation established that at least 10 young children had been subjected to the hostile environment.

Origins of the inquiry and earlier warnings

The criminal inquiry began on 18 May 2026, when two mothers arrived at the San Giovanni carabinieri station to file formal reports regarding suspected abuse. Their young daughters had exhibited distress at home, using gestures to describe how an educator was treating them badly. The children placed their hands behind their heads to imitate repeated blows they had received at the nursery. An earlier incident had occurred in September 2025, when parents witnessed the same educator violently seizing a child by the wrist to force the toddler to sit at the lunch table. Following a classroom meeting, school administration assured families that a formal warning letter had been issued to the educator. Less than a month after that warning, another child at home mimicked receiving slaps to the back of the head, foreshadowing the complaints filed the following spring.

Judicial findings and defendant response

During her interrogation with judicial authorities, the educator, who is divorced and has no children of her own, denied several of the alleged acts while claiming that other physical actions served an educational purpose. Preliminary investigations judge Paola Della Monica rejected these justifications when granting the suspension order requested by the prosecution.

The truly significant element that allows us to affirm that such conduct constitutes the crime of mistreatment is the overall attitude maintained.

The court determined that the suspect's conduct was habitual and systematically persecutory rather than a set of isolated incidents. The 62-year-old woman faces charges of mistreatment of minors entrusted to her care for education and instruction under the Italian penal code. The precautionary suspension remains active as the broader judicial proceedings continue in Rome.