Teacher Charged With Abuse

A Rio Rancho Middle School teacher was arrested Saturday morning after two students told police that the teacher grabbed them by their arm and collar during a science class on Thursday.

Ken Boyd, 45, was charged with two counts of child abuse and booked into jail after being arrested around 10 a.m., Rio Rancho police spokesman Sgt. Nicholas Onken said.

Boyd had just started his job at the school in October, a Rio Rancho Public Schools spokeswoman said, and on Thursday stormed into the principal’s office distraught about an interaction with his students, according to an arrest warrant.

“(Boyd) began to explain he was not cut out for the job and he could not stay there,” principal Lynda Kitts told police, according to the warrant.

About 20 minutes later, the school got a call from a boy’s mother who said her son was crying and claimed he’d been choked and locked in a classroom, the warrant states.

The boy, a sixth-grader, went on to tell police that Boyd had grabbed him by his sweatshirt collar and pushed him backward into a table, yelling, “Sit down and shut up, you idiot.” When the boy began to cry, the warrant states, Boyd told the class, “Look, he is crying. Who is not a big boy now?”

Boyd then dismissed the class except for the boy, turned off the lights and closed the classroom door, according to the warrant.

Kitts found him in an unlocked classroom, the warrant states.

Officers then questioned a second boy who said Boyd grabbed him forcefully by the arm with one hand and by the back of the neck with the other before pushing the boy to the ground, almost hitting the boy’s head against a table in the process, according to the warrant. The second alleged victim told police he was “really scared.”

The boys’ classmates corroborated their testimonies, saying they were also scared by the teacher’s alleged actions, according to the warrant.

Kim Vesely, RRPS spokeswoman, said the district is launching an investigation “as expeditiously as possible” into the matter that could result in Boyd’s termination. In the meantime, he is on paid administrative leave.

If the allegations are true, “It’s a very serious incident. It’s totally unacceptable,” Vesely said.

Boyd is being held at Sandoval County Detention Center.