MEAN ONE WITH A ‘GRINCH’
3-K teacher ‘locked kid’ in closet
She was too cruel for school. A Brooklyn Catholic school teacher allegedly put a 3-year-old student in a cardboard box inside a locked closet, and threatened the terrified child that the “Grinch” was coming for him, The Post has learned.
Alexis Breeden, the lead 3-K teacher at St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Academy in Windsor Terrace, was arrested Wednesday and charged with unlawful imprisonment and endangering the welfare of a child, four weeks after the alleged twisted timeout, according to a criminal complaint.
“Simply put, there are no imaginable circumstances where this can be called anything but child abuse,” said John Elefterakis of law firm Elefterakis, Elefterakis & Panek, which is working with the family of the child, who have requested anonymity. “This incident is extremely troubling, and we intend to fully investigate and force accountability.”
On Feb. 2, the school nurse witnessed Breeden holding shut the handle of the storage closet as a child cried inside, according to a complaint filed with the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.
The nurse told Breeden to open the door and when Breeden unlocked it, the nurse saw “a 3-yearold child crying inside the closet in a large cardboard box,” it stated.
A freaky “Grinch” mask was kept in the closet and had been used by the teacher for weeks to threaten kids, parents say.
“The Grinch is in there,” the teacher would tell the tots, according to one parent with knowledge of the incident.
Shuttered
The nurse reported the disturbing discovery and the K-3 program was immediately shut down as the city Health Department and NYPD began probes of childabuse allegations.
The taxpayer-funded, city-run Universal 3-K program, which is located on Prospect Park West behind Holy Name of Jesus Church, reopened Tuesday.
Breeden, of Castleton Corners, SI, was fired soon after the incident. She has pleaded not guilty to the charges against her and was released on her own recognizance, according to court records.
The Brooklyn diocese told the Catholic newspaper The Tablet that it “took immediate action upon learning of a safe environment code of conduct violation.”
“The child did not sustain any injuries and out of respect for the student, we will not provide any additional details about this incident,” a diocesan statement said.
The $6,600-a-year Catholic school serves about 280 students.
Elefterakis said the shocking incident was not the only case of bullying toward kids at the school, which touts its nurturing parochial environment.
“Unfortunately, our initial inquiry has revealed that this is not the first instance at this school where helpless children were subject to abusive behavior,” he said.
Parents bashed the school in online reviews for its pervasive “culture of bullying” among students and staff, teachers that make kids cry and “disciplinarian” principal, Stephanie-Ann Germann.
Parents tell The Post that there have been concerns about Breeden since she started in 2020.
“It’s just outrageous and unacceptable that this could have happened in the first place,” said one parent, who pulled her son from the school last year over safety concerns. “The principal has been warned about this teacher’s behavior for years now.”
Another parent, whose 3-yearold is now on a waiting list for another school, told The Post, “We’ve had concerns since the beginning of the year. All the kids in her class started acting differently.
They weren’t their usual 3-yearold selves anymore.”
A third parent said the scenario since February has been “horrific” and will have “lasting psychological consequences.”
“It goes beyond one bad apple,” she wrote in a parent Facebook group, adding, “The school has completely ignored the parents in the affected class.”
‘Trauma’ on children
Another Windsor Terrace mom pulled her son from the K-3 program over safety concerns and dissatisfaction with the teaching practices, she said.
“I also think about all the other kids who witnessed this,” she told The Post. “You never know how trauma affects small children’s brains . . . It’s very delicate with 3-year-olds.”
Breeden, 30, did not have a valid teaching certification until March 2021, state records show, despite starting at the school in 2020.
She taught for four years before starting at SJWCA, according to the school’s social media, but it was not immediately clear where.
Breeden said she would not comment on the incident, and her lawyer said he had no comment.