A woman was arrested Monday and charged with aggravated child abuse after allegedly stabbing a child in the arm with an ink pen, a Lake County Sheriff’s Office report states.
Martha Ivette Alvarez, 41, was taken into custody at Villages Elementary of Lady Lake after a deputy spoke with the victim and his sister. Both told the deputy that Alvarez stabbed the child as a form of punishment for not completing a homework assignment.
According to the sister, Alvarez plunged the pen into the little boy’s arm after he admitted to lying about finishing the homework. She added that Alvarez dragged the pen in a downward motion, which cut the victim’s arm.
The incident took place before the children were dropped off at school. School officials contacted law enforcement after talking with the boy and seeing the cut on his arm.
Both children, who reside in a local domestic violence shelter, told the deputy that Alvarez sometimes spanks them with her hand, belts and electrical cords. The sister said Alvarez will sometimes follow up the physical violence by telling them that she is “toughening them up for real life, because the world is hard,” the report stated.
The victim had an open, bloody cut about one-and-a-half inches long on his upper left arm. There also was swelling and bruising around the laceration, indicating significant force had been used, the report adds.