A 31-year-old Iowa Park woman is charged with injury to a child after school officials contact police about a 10-year-old boy with blood on his face, hands and legs and a swollen eye.
Starla Chester was booked on $20,000 bond on Friday, but is no longer in jail.
Police say the boy told school officials his younger brother pushed him and he tripped over his sister and got a bloody nose.
However, the school nurse questioned the younger brother who said his brother had gotten into trouble about some gum he took, and their mother grabbed him by the hair and began punching him.
On further questioning by a police officer, they say the victim admitted his mother got angry about him taking some gum and began hitting him in the face, causing his nose to bleed and hit him once in the stomach.
He said she told him if he told anyone he would be grounded for life and would have to live in Colorado for life with his father.
When asked how often things like that happen, he said sometimes once a week, sometimes once a month.
Police say Chester denied ever striking the boy, but was inconsistent in her story about how he got the bloody nose.
Officers said she asked, “when children are disobedient what do you do, yell at them or beat them up?” then corrected it to, “not beat them up, beat them, spank them.”
They say she also admitted using a coat hangar in the past to hit the boy.
(Information from TexomasHomepage.com)
