longisland

A Hempstead mom accused of attacking her daughter's teacher was back in court Tuesday on assault charges.

Annika McKenzie, 34, allegedly got past security at Alverta B. Gray Schultz Middle School in Hempstead last week. 

McKenzie's attorney Donald Rollock repeated his claim that his client went to confront the teacher only after the teacher allegedly "grabbed" her 12-year old daughter earlier in the day. He says security footage from inside the school should "clear his client."

"You have a still picture of her laying there. How do we know she's not faking?" asked Rollock. "When we look at that video, it will show exactly what happened and we'll be able to make determinations about whether [the teacher] is credible or not."

The teacher, identified as Catherine Englehardt, is still recovering at her home and refused to comment to <strong>News 12</strong>. Elias Mestizo, the president of the Hempstead Classroom Teachers Association, strongly defended her and said the same video will prove Englehardt is truly the victim.

"She was assaulted. She went unconscious for a couple of minutes and she was hurt for doing her job," said Mestizo.

The Hempstead Village Police say the district handed over the security tape. They say the incident is still under investigation.

Rollock told <strong>News 12</strong> that McKenzie's 12-year old daughter has been suspended from the middle school out of "retaliation." It was not immediately clear why the student was suspended.

A spokesman for Hempstead School District had no comment about the incident or the suspension.

Parents who demanded answers at a Hempstead School Board meeting Tuesday night found little insight into what security measures the school has taken after the attack.

About five minutes after the meeting started, the school board left the room to go into executive session. Parents were left waiting for more than two hours.

A Hempstead mom accused of attacking her daughter's teacher was back in court Tuesday on assault charges.    Annika McKenzie, 34, allegedly got past security at Alverta B. Gray Schultz Middle School in

Long Island

LI | Weather

LIFORECAST

Some good tips there. Maybe you're gonna spend these next few nights inside with the family. It's gonna be cold out here. Yeah. You know, and, uh, we're gonna be looking at some colder conditions out there. December standards. It's not too bad, but a bit of a chill and some sunshine to start our day and going through the next couple of days, we do see a little bit colder weather. After what happened yesterday, temperatures around 50 to 55 A look outside Beth Page looking towards Hicksville. The sunshine is with us this morning but the clouds are coming in during the afternoon. Our friends around Corm today you're going to top out to a high of 44 at noon time. Yeah, that sunshine starting to fade by three o'clock. It's mostly cloudy through this evening and a temperature around 44 degrees for the high this evening. Coming home from school and work temperatures will start to drop down into the thirties. So it does get colder tomorrow morning, sunshine to start our day. You can see Nassau County s County. We're ok. Clouds are increasing. You will see a couple of weather features that will make it colder over the next couple of days. We have these weak little cold fronts coming our direction. What will happen is this afternoon with the clouds, temperatures only around 40 to 44. That's it. Then as we go to this evening, cloudy skies, the evening rush is dry. Temperatures, upper thirties to around 40 degrees for this evening. Going out to dinner, bundle up. Now into tomorrow morning, we get a reinforcing shot of cold air. Now tomorrow morning temperatures bottom out to around freezing. You see around 830 at the bus stop, temperatures are in the mid and upper thirties tomorrow afternoon, your Wednesday afternoon, high temperatures around 41 and notice this little green raindrop here out over the ocean, a little snow in the Hudson Valley. Slight chance on Wednesday of a passing rain or snow shower into the afternoon and evening hours of Wednesday's chance of a rain or snow shower. Very small chance, but the chance is there. Now Thursday morning, it's cold twenties to low thirties. And then during Thursday afternoon, it's going to be cold. Highs will struggle to around 40 can't rule out one or two flurries Thursday afternoon. And then heading into the weekend, here comes some of that rain with the warmer weather. So towards your Sunday clouds in the morning rain in the afternoon through the evening hours of Sunday gone by Monday. Highs today, near 44 sunshine goes to clouds, cold weather. Tonight. Lows are in the low thirties. The start of Hanukkah is dry and cold with a high of 40 on Thursday, 50 Friday, there's the rain over the weekend on Sunday into early Monday morning.

https://vod.chdrstatic.com/transcode/09f070b8-3485-48dc-a72d-3779e30c39cc/09f070b8-3485-48dc-a72d-3779e30c39cc.transcribe

Hempstead mom back in court in teacher attack case