Nun who allegedly threatened to discipline student is fired
Teacher said she’d knock out the boy’s teeth, his father says in harassment complaint.

WOODBRIDGE | A nun who allegedly threatened to discipline a student by knocking his teeth out has been fired by her school.

Sister Catherine Iacouzze was fired Dec. 7, several weeks after making the alleged threat against a sixth-grader who walked down the wrong staircase at St. Cecelia School in Iselin.

The student’s father had filed a harassment complaint with police on Nov. 11, the day of the alleged incident.

Iacouzze told the 11-year-old boy that he would ”have no teeth left in his mouth if he had an attitude with her again,” according to the complaint.

The 69-year-old Iacouzze, an assistant principal at the school, had been suspended by the Catholic Diocese of Metuchen while it conducted an internal investigation.

”The Diocese of Metuchen’s first priority is the safety of our children, and we regret that one of our teachers spoke to one of our children in a threatening manner,” diocese spokeswoman Joanne Ward said.

Iacouzze had worked at the school for about five years and served as an algebra teacher, guidance counselor and school disciplinarian.

She could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Her attorney, James Mackevich, said Iacouzze was misunderstood.

”There was never any indication she was going to hit him,” he told the Home News Tribune of East Brunswick. ”It was more sarcasm.

”She caught a problem child breaking rules. In that she used politically incorrect language, so be it. She did not make any physical threat to the child in any way, shape or form.”

Iacouzze is scheduled to appear at a hearing on the harassment complaint in Woodbridge Municipal Court on Dec. 28. (AP)