Montville — Montville police on Monday accused a fired elementary school lunch monitor of pushing a fourth-grade student, who fell out of his cafeteria chair and onto the floor last March.

Ricarla Horsley, 53, of Oakdale turned herself in Monday and faces charges of risk of injury to a child and second-degree breach of peace.

Police began investigating the March 2018 incident last month, when the mother of an 11-year-old student at Dr. Charles E. Murphy School asked for a police report on it, but police told the mother no report was ever filed, according to an arrest warrant affidavit filed by Montville police Detective Addison Saffioti.

The student alleged to police that Horsley bumped into him after recess as students lined up to go to lunch, and later "smooshed his face/head back and he fell backwards off the chair onto the floor where he hit his head on the ground," according to the warrant. Police said a cafeteria video shows Horsley use an open palm and push the student's head backwards; the video later shows Horsley grab the boy by the shoulders and push him toward the exit.

The student alleged that when he asked to see a nurse, Horsley said he was fine and was "faking it." The student told police his head hurt for a few days after the incident, but Horsley told police he "was certainly not injured" and that when another monitor asked the student if he wanted to see a nurse, he declined.

The student's mother told police that the incident, and a few others, prompted her to withdraw her son from Murphy and he now attends school in another district.

Horsley admitted to police that she did "touch the child but only because he was not behaving," including "leaning across the cafeteria table pouring milk into other students' bowls." She added that she "was never trained" on whether it was school policy for a monitor to place their hands on a student to correct bad behavior.

She described the student as "problematic and disruptive before" and said she'd sought assistance from administrators but received none. Horsley also told police that the student's mother arrived at school and scolded the student "for lying and was furious."

Superintendent Laurie Pallin declined to comment about the incident on Tuesday evening. She told police last month that she believed that putting hands on a student in anger is "never OK, but putting hands on a student for their safety is OK." Horsley was fired after the incident in March, with Pallin telling police she believed the monitor was "terminated because she exhibited behavior that is not accepted or allowed by the Montville School system," according to the warrant.

Horsley declined to comment when reached by phone Tuesday.

Police in January received a report from Pallin, provided to her from Principal Amy Espinoza, noting that several students said Horsley pushed the 11-year-old in the forehead, causing him to fall from his seat. The principal's report noted video of the cafeteria showed the students "behaving in a rowdy manner and both monitors speaking with them several times."

Police confirmed that Espinoza reported the incident to the Department of Children and Families on March 21, 2018, but DCF declined to open an investigation, the warrant said. DCF spokesman Gary Kleeblatt noted he could not comment on individual cases.

The incident occurred just a few weeks before state police announced charges against former substitute teacher Ryan Fish, who was accused of supervising multiple slapboxing matches that led to his firing but no immediate reports to DCF or police.

Former Superintendent Brian Levesque, high school Principal Jeffrey Theodoss and Assistant Principal Tatiana Patten were all charged with failing to report the classroom fighting. The cases were dropped against Levesque and Theodoss, who last year resigned and retired, respectively, while Patten's case remains ongoing.

Horsley, who is free on a $5,000 bond, is due back in court on Feb. 21.

b.kail@theday.com