1st Grade Teacher Charged With Abuse of Her Own Kids

A Tennessee first grade teacher  was charged with two counts of child abuse after her children reported to their father that she bit and scratched them while screaming at them over her cell phone.

Chattanooga Police took the report on December 12 after he picked up two of his children from his estranged wife, Heather Pecht, The Chattanoogan reported. He told an officer that he noticed scratches and scabs all over their hands, and the kids said their mother had done it.

He told officers that he had reported abuse several times in the past, but nothing ever came of it. He said that his oldest child lives with him because “he does not want to be around his mother.”

Court documents said the two younger children told officials that they were with Pecht in the parking lot of Ruby Falls on Lookout Mountain when her cell phone fell into the back seat. Pecht began screaming at them for the phone, and they began trying to get it for her. She, however, began pinching and scratching them. One of the children got out of the car to get away from her, and one of the children told officers that she bit him when he tried to push her hands away from him.

Both of the children said the abuse had been “happening for years, and occurs about once a week.”

Police noted scratches, red marks, and other marks resembling fingernail imprints on the children’s hands.

The oldest child also reported frequent abuse, WTVC reported.

The father filed a request for emergency custody of the children, which was granted, and Pecht was arrested on Friday on two counts of child abuse.

Pecht is a first grade teacher at Lookout Mountain Elementary School.

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[Featured image: Heather Pecht/Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office]