A Queens gym teacher was arrested after he was caught on camera allegedly slamming a 14-year-old boy against a wall and hurling him to the ground.
Colin McNally, 58, a physical education teacher and boys’ varsity tennis coach at Benjamin N. Cardozo High School in Bayside, got into a confrontation with the teen at 11:15 a.m. Wednesday, police said.
The teen had been playing basketball in the school’s gym when McNally grabbed his ball for an unspecified reason, prosecutors said.
The teacher started walking the basketball to the dean’s office as the teen continued to ask him to give it back, according to a criminal complaint.
The teen appeared to try to take the basketball when the teacher suddenly grabbed him by the jacket, slammed him against a hallway wall and then threw him to the ground, footage obtained by WABC-TV shows.
Other people are shown in the footage standing by, one of whom appears to attempt to intervene.
The basketball drops to the ground during the scuffle, the clip shows.
“I pushed a kid against the wall and then I pushed him to the ground,” McNally admitted, according to the complaint.
The student did not report any injuries, according to cops — but the teacher’s alleged actions caused him “annoyance and alarm,” the complaint said.
McNally was arrested at the scene and charged with endangering the welfare of a child and second-degree harassment, according to prosecutors.
“These are incredibly disturbing allegations, and Mr. McNally was immediately removed from the classroom away from students, pending the outcome of the investigation,” City Department of Education spokesman Nathaniel Styer said in a statement.