TOLEDO, Ohio — A Toledo Public Schools paraprofessional has been suspended without pay after surveillance video shows her restraining an 8-year-old student inside Garfield Elementary School last month.

The video, provided to WTOL 11 by the boy’s mother, Nancy Coffman, appears to show the employee grabbing her son and holding him against a wall in the hallway.

“He told me that he went to walk out of the classroom and she grabbed him by the back of his neck and that’s how he got the scratch,” Coffman said.

Coffman said her son, who is autistic, came home that day with bruises and scratches.

“She snatched him by his backpack so hard that it broke the strap and then left a bruise on his neck,” she alleged.

According to Coffman, the school initially told her that her son, who has had behavioral issues in the past, became upset after not earning McDonald’s with his class. She stated that they told her staff tried to calm him down, but the situation escalated into the hallway.

Coffman said the surveillance footage shows the paraprofessional grabbing her son, pressing him against the wall, and holding him there for more than two minutes. She was told her son’s scratch came from something hanging on the wall but after seeing the video, she says that explanation doesn’t add up and it’s no excuse.

“No matter what a child does, they do not deserve to be manhandled, slammed against the wall, fingernails digging into them. That’s absolutely unacceptable,” Coffman said.

Coffman also expressed frustration that no one intervened.

“I got more angry when I started to see all the other staff members just standing around letting it happen,” she said.

Fellow Garfield parent Greg Schaffer said his stepdaughter witnessed the incident and that his stepson is in the same class as Coffman’s son. He said parents weren’t notified about what happened.

“That’s what makes me feel like they don’t care about the safety and the well-being of our kids,” Schaefer said.

Toledo Public Schools confirmed to WTOL 11 that the paraprofessional is Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI) certified, meaning she had been trained to de-escalate and manage disruptive behavior. The district stated she is scheduled for recertification in November and that there are no other documented incidents involving the employee with students.

Coffman expressed that she wants accountability.

“You could tell he [her son] was not angry, he was scared. Nobody should be scared of an employee, a child should not be scared of an employee at a school,” she explained.

Coffman said she plans to meet with Lucas County prosecutors later this month to discuss possible charges against the paraprofessional. The district has not released the name of the paraprofessional, citing an ongoing investigation.

Coffman said she has considered transferring her son to another school, but worries he wouldn’t handle the change well.