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Inset: Robin Popour (Delta Schoolcraft Intermediate School District). Background: The Learning Center in Michigan, where Popour worked as a teacher aide (Google Maps).
In Michigan, a 54-year-old teacher aide faces allegations of forcefully pushing a 13-year-old special-needs student against a classroom window, later claiming to colleagues that the child “deserved it.”
Robin Popour has been charged with a single count of third-degree child abuse related to an incident in December 2025.
The episode took place on December 17 in the late afternoon within a classroom at The Learning Center in Delta County, a school dedicated to supporting students with moderate to severe disabilities, according to a report by ABC affiliate WBUP in Ishpeming, Michigan, referencing police documentation.
Three aides who were present reportedly witnessed the scene and recounted similar events involving Popour and the young boy, described as mostly nonverbal and developmentally akin to a 5-year-old.
According to one aide, the student was engaged in repetitive actions and making pinching gestures toward Popour, who allegedly responded with a threat to slap him.
From the report:
[The student] then began to make pinching motions at [Popour].
[Popour] then told him, if you pinch me I will slap your hand. He then continued to pinch at her and actually pinched her hands a couple of times. Then [Popour] got inches from his face and screamed at him to stay seated.
[The student] then stood up and made pinching motions toward [Popour”s] hands. [Popour] then grabbed [the student] by his shoulders and slammed him into the window. [He] froze briefly then grabbed onto [Popour’s] arms and was digging his nails into her arms.
Aides said that after the altercation, they heard Popour make alarming remarks.
“I don’t give a f— if I left marks on him,” one aide recalled her saying. Another told investigators Popour stated, “I don’t care if I got him. He deserved it.”
The three aides who claimed to have witnessed the alleged abuse all filed incident reports with the school district the following day.
The aides also reportedly emphasized that Popour had previously made troubling comments about the victim.
“Robin has said many times throughout the year, she does not like him, has no use for him, and if he ever touches her she will lose her job and hit him back,” one aide reportedly told police.
Another added that Popour talked “openly in the classroom about the things she would do” if the child hurt her, saying it seemed as though Popour “was almost looking for something like this to happen.”
School officials later acknowledged the reports raised concerns about internal communication and staff training.
“What it taught us is that moving forward, we needed to provide some additional training about appropriate reporting and making [staff] feel empowered to be able to report those things,” Superintendent Kristina Hansen said.
She added the incident was “well outside of anything that’s happened [here] before,” emphasizing that “student safety is always at the forefront.”
Following a preliminary hearing in January, 94th District Judge Steve Parks found there was sufficient evidence for the case to proceed to circuit court. It was not immediately clear when Popour was scheduled to make her next court appearance.
If convicted, Popour faces a maximum sentence of up to two years in prison.