Ansonia PD
Durso-Smith
ANSONIA – Police arrested a former preschool teacher who allegedly injured a 3‑year-old boy at Mead Elementary School in March.
Mary Durso-Smith, 32, of New Haven, was arrested June 4 and charged with second-degree assault and risk of injury to a child, according to police. Both charges are felonies.
She is scheduled to be arraigned in Superior Court today (June 5).
The Valley Indy left two messages with Durso-Smith.
The Valley Indy previously reported that the boy’s family is planning to file a lawsuit against the school district and the city over the incident.
Edward L. Walsh, a New Haven lawyer representing the family, filed a notice to sue on May 21.
According to an arrest warrant, a police officer was called to Mead School at 6:15 p.m. March 25 stemming from a DCF (Department of Children and Families) report.
The officer met with principal Amy Cosciello, who said she had talked to Durso-Smith about the incident. The principal said that Durso-Smith said that during recess the child fell on the playground.
“Durso-Smith reported she placed both her palms under (the child’s) armpit and helped him stand back up,” the principal allegedly told police. Durso-Smith, after taking the child to a bench, noticed his arm was injured and took him to the school nurse.
The principal also showed police a video of the incident, according to the warrant.
The principal “reported Durso-Smith’s statement of what occurred was not accurate according to the video footage,” the warrant states.
The video showed the three-year-old child attempting to climb the wrong way up a slide at around 9:30 a.m., according to the warrant. Then, Durso-Smith allegedly grabbed the child’s arm.
“Durso-Smith is observed grabbing (the child)’s left arm and dragging him,” police said. “Durso-Smith dragged (the child) and took approximately five steps before he fell to the ground.”
The warrant says Durso-Smith then continued to drag the boy along the ground, before lifting him up by his elbows and sitting him down on a bench.
Durso-Smith then moved his arm back and forth “as if she were checking for mobility,” according to police.
Afterward, the video allegedly shows Durso-Smith and the child walking across the playground together. They have a conversation before the boy goes down a slide, the warrant states.
Durso-Smith was seen holding the boy’s left arm – the one she allegedly dragged him by – after he came down the slide, police said. The boy went down on one knee, although “it did not appear as if Durso-Smith forced (the child) to the ground.”
The school placed Durso-Smith on administrative leave the same day, according to personnel records. A letter informing her of the investigation stated that it was“in regard to physical contact with a student.”
Police attempted to contact Durso-Smith, according to the warrant, but she chose not to provide a statement to police on her lawyer’s advice.
She resigned from Mead on April 11, according to personnel records released by the school district.
The warrant says the child underwent surgery at Yale-New Haven Hospital for an arm fracture following the incident. An investigator from the Department of Children and Families (DCF) evaluated his injuries to see whether they indicated abuse.
“His xrays show a displaced fracture of the humerus and it is plausible that he sustained the fracture when he fell and that it then became displaced when he was lifted up by that same arm,” the warrant quotes the DCF investigator as saying.
Durso-Smith was released on a $50,000 bond following her arrest, police said.
