By Ashleigh Costello
EAGnews.org

MANCHESTER, N.H. – A special education teacher at McLaughlin Middle School is facing a bevy of assault charges after allegedly harming three special needs students.

Martine Gambale, 55, was indicted by a Hillsborough grand jury for allegedly dragging a child by the wrist down the hallway, shoving another into a wall, and tying a third to a chair, reports the UnionLeader.com.

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Gambale, who has worked as a special education teacher at the school since 2008, has been charged with two counts of assault and one count of false imprisonment. While the charges are both Class A misdemeanors, the case “will be handled at the superior court level because the charges carry enhanced penalties since the alleged victims were under 13 at the time,” Hillsborough County Attorney Dennis Hogan told the news site.

Each count carries a maximum two-to-five years imprisonment.

Hogan said complaints against Gambale were filed when “mandated reporters,” or people “in the system who are required to report” suspected abuse or neglect, brought the allegations to the attention of local law enforcement.

“This is certainly rare at the school department,” Hogan said.  “There are protocols on when you can touch a child and when you cannot touch a child, and obviously, this does not fit those protocols, either.”

Gambale has been on paid administrative leave since April, according to the district’s superintendent Tomas Brennan. That means the school will probably have to continue to pay her, and very likely a substitute teacher, throughout the lengthy legal proceedings.

Gambale has yet to be arraigned on the charges.