The Boulder Valley School District recently placed Monarch PK-8 teacher Matt Hill on paid administrative leave following a report that he injured a student, according to a letter sent to families by Principal Robin Techmanski.
Louisville police arrested Hill on suspicion of misdemeanor child abuse for the April 8 incident. An early childhood special education teacher, Hill, 43, was hired by Boulder Valley about 10 years ago.
As soon as the school learned about the incident, Techmanski wrote, administrators notified police and placed Hill on leave.
“We are sharing this information with our school community today because safety and transparency are top priorities for our school and the Boulder Valley School District,” Techmanski wrote. “We can share no further information at this time because it is an ongoing police investigation and personnel matter. We believe in due process and appreciate your patience and understanding as this work continues.”
According to the arrest affidavit, the school’s speech therapist reported that she went to Hill’s classroom to work with a student with a speech disability and found the student sitting at a table with an ice pack on his hand. When she asked the student what happened, he responded that “Mr. Matt hurt hand chair.”
A para-educator who was in the classroom when the incident happened told police the class was meeting on the carpet and the student was sitting in a “cube chair” that wasn’t his assigned seat. Hill asked the student to get out of the chair, but the student was “having a rough day” and not listening well, she said.
She said Hill seemed to become frustrated, picked up one side of the chair and “tossed” the student out in an aggressive manner, causing him to fall to the ground and hurt his hand, according to the affidavit.
Hill told police the boy was fighting with a classmate over the chair and he was trying to move the child by tipping over the chair. When he tried to get between the two students, he told police, the chair fell on the boy’s hand and pinched his finger.
When police shared Hill’s account with the para-educator, she said she didn’t see an argument between the boy and a classmate and disputed Hill’s account that he was trying to separate two students, according to the affidavit.
The mother of the boy told police that his left hand had a vein “bulging slightly more than normal” and was red on top, but not bruised. She also said he had been very emotional and clingy and she did not feel safe sending him to school.
Along with the incident this month, police found a March 2023 report of a similar allegation by a different student, according to the affidavit. That previous case was closed as unfounded.
To share information with investigators, contact Louisville police officer Jewel Danielson at [email protected].
