Girl, 10, Attacked Teacher Over Candy Seizure

NOVEMBER 11--A 10-year-old Florida girl is facing a felony charge for allegedly attacking her elementary school teacher and threatening the educator’s life. The assault, police report, was triggered when the teacher seized a bag of Halloween candy that the girl brought to class.

Fifth-grader Miesha Bryant was arrested last Tuesday after an Orange County Sheriff’s Office deputy was summoned to the girl’s classroom at Zellwood Elementary School. The child is pictured in the below mug shot.

According to a sheriff’s report, teacher Kelly Sanchez told investigators that she was holding the candy until the end of the day. At one point, Sanchez said, the girl “went behind her desk and took the bag of candy without her permission.” The child then began throwing pieces of candy at classmates, added Sanchez.

After Sanchez again confiscated the bag of candy, the girl “started throwing items” from the teacher’s desk. While Sanchez waited for a school resource officer to arrive, a deputy reported, Miesha struck the teacher in the stomach and side and “also stated that she would kill Ms. Sanchez and her family.”

The resource officer brought the girl to an assistant principal’s office. When a sheriff’s deputy later arrived at the Zellwood school, the 4’ tall, 80-pound Miesha was handcuffed and “being held down in a chair while she was screaming and flailing her legs around.” She was transported to a juvenile detention facility, where she was later released into her mother's custody.

In a TV interview, Sebrina Bryant said she was angered that Miesha was arrested for the incident, and did not believe her daughter would hit or threaten a teacher. But when a WFTV reporter asked the child why she threatened the teacher, the girl replied, “I was mad.”

The State Attorney's Office will soon decide whether Miesha will be prosecuted for battery (and a misdemeanor count of disrupting an educational institution) or whether she will be placed into a diversion program. (2 pages)