A former Bristol special education teacher has been convicted of harassment involving a child with autism whom she physically disciplined last year after he reportedly attempted to strike her.
Following
an Aug. 25 hearing, Stephanie Kleinfelder, 26, of Langhorne, was found guilty of a summary charge of harassment involving physical contact in the Dec. 4, 2025 incident at Snyder-Girotti Elementary School.
The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office dropped a second harassment charge involving a different student with autism against Kleinfelder.
District Judge Terrance Hughes, who ordered Kleinfelder pay a $150 fine, said that children with special needs can be difficult to handle at times.
“However, you can’t cross the line,” he added.
Kleinfelder started working in Bristol last August and she was placed on administrative leave in December following the incident. She was charged by summons in February and resigned her job in March, according to school board minutes.
The Tuesday hearing was the first time details of the incident were made public.
Two personal care aides in the classroom that day each testified they witnessed Kleinfelder grab the wrist of a 7-year-old boy and guide his fist to punch himself in the face twice after the boy attempted to hit her.
After the incident the boy was upset, but showed no sign of physical injury, the aides testified. He was not taken to the nurse to be checked, and remained in the classroom for the rest of the day.
Kayla McCausland testified she was sitting directly in front of Kleinfelder and the student, who is minimally verbal, when she grabbed the boy’s wrist and “made” him hit himself around the mouth area.
“It was pretty hard,” she said. “He seemed startled and started crying more.”
She added that after she grabbed the boy’s wrist, Kleinfelder screamed at the child, “you don’t like it do you?”
Afterward, McCausland testified she immediately reported what she witnessed to the district’s head of special education.
Amanda Baines testified that Kleinfelder was doing benchmark testing with the student, who was uncooperative, screaming, crying before he swung at the teacher, who grabbed his wrists and made him hit his cheek area.
“I heard her say, ‘How do you like that,’ to him,” Baines testified, adding “I was shocked when I saw her do that to him.”
The aides testified that they undergo annual crisis prevention and intervention training to learn how to deescalate and calm students when they act out, and the training does not involve physical contact with students.
Bucks County prosecutor David O’Beirne asked Baines if Kleinfelder’s response was ever part of the annual deescalation training she received.
“No, it is not,” she said.
Under cross examination by defense attorney Matthew Sedecca, Baines testified with combative students she was taught an adult sits on each side of a student and restrains their hands so they don’t hit themselves or others.
Kleinfelder was the only defense witness. She testified her job in Bristol was her first time working with students with autism.
The student in the incident didn’t typically enjoy doing academic tasks and he would become aggressive when he didn’t want to complete his work, Kleinfelder testified.
She added that the boy previously injured her in other outbursts, and he hit her in the face the day of the incident.
When he attempted to swat her again, Kleinfelder testified she restrained his wrist and brought his hand to his face and “lightly touched” him, while telling him his actions were not a “safe touch.”
She described the intervention as a “hand-over-hand” technique that is typically used in special education, but not one she had used before that day.
The circumstances in the Bristol case are similar to a 2024 one in the Centennial School District where a special education teacherwas accused of manhandling two kindergarten students in his autism support class.
The teacher was found guilty of one of two harassment charges in a summary trial in 2025 and fined $300, but the conviction was overturned on appealin the Bucks County Common Pleas court.
The Centennial teacher, a district employee for 19 years, retired in 2025 after the school board approved a settlement agreement with him.
Crime and Courts Reporter Jo Ciavaglia can be reached at jciavaglia@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Ex Bristol special ed teacher physically harassed student with autism
