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Inset: Reylan Cortes-Garnier (Palm Beach County Jail). Background: Cortes-Garnier allegedly hits a nonverbal boy with autism with a shoe at a facility in West Palm Beach, Florida (WPEC).
A therapist in Florida is accused of misusing tools meant to aid children with autism, allegedly using a shoe, tennis racket, and book to hit a young nonverbal boy. These items, intended for therapeutic purposes, were reportedly used to harm rather than help.
Reylan Cortes-Garnier, 28, has been charged with child abuse without causing significant physical harm. The alleged incident took place on February 20 at Maximum Achievers in West Palm Beach. Cortes-Garnier, a registered behavior technician, had been providing therapy to the boy for approximately a year.
The boy’s mother grew suspicious when she noticed her son returning home with unexplained bruises and marks on his body.
“The first thing I noticed was his trembling,” Diana Hernandez, the boy’s mother, recounted to WPEC, the local CBS station.
Concerned, she approached the facility’s director and requested to view footage from her son’s session with Cortes-Garnier. The scenes she witnessed were shocking and deeply upsetting.
The video depicted Cortes-Garnier “engaging in multiple intentional acts of child abuse,” cops wrote, including allegedly throwing a ball at the boy “at high velocity.” Cortes-Garnier also took off his shoe and beat the boy with it, officers said. He then allegedly hit the boy several times with a racket and book.
Hernandez noticed the boy had a bite mark along with bruises to his shoulder, ribcage and lower back area. She took him to the hospital for medical evaluation and doctors determined his injuries were “consistent with physical trauma.”
Hernandez told the director of the facility that she wanted to get police involved, but she said the director was allegedly initially hesitant to do so.
“Why are you risking your whole business for this man?” she said, per WPEC. “You’re supposed to be taking care of my kids. I put my kids in your hands.”
Cops reviewed the video with the director, who told them “such conduct is strictly prohibited at her facility and is not consistent with any established policy, training protocol or individualized behavior plan.”
The director said Cortes-Garnier “profusely apologized” when she confronted him about the incident and showed him the video. He has since been fired.
Hernandez told WPEC that her son was “traumatized” but is doing better. She said the whole situation has been upsetting.
“I just want justice. I just want justice for my son,” she said. “I honestly wanted it to be a lie. I wanted it to not be true. I wanted it to be something else.”
Cortes-Garnier was arrested on Friday and has since posted a $7,500 bond. His next court date is set for March 29.