N E W Y O R K, June 13 — Police arrested a substitute teacher on Thursday for allegedly attacking 19 of his first-grade pupils with a broom handle.

Danilo Nunez, 57, lashed out after losing control of the class, police spokesman Sgt. Gregory Harold said. He faces assault charges.

"He smacked my daughter," mother Tashana Sapp said. "He smacked her so hard that he knocked her earring out of her ear."

Sapp told WCBS-TV that Nunez beat one child with the back of a broom stick.

"He broke it and then hit him. These are babies. What gives him the right to hit our kids?" Sapp said.

The children were treated in a hospital and released, authorities said.

A woman at Nunez' home identified herself as his wife and said he had been a substitute teaching for two years and that she was shocked by the assault accusations. The woman would not provide her name.

A Board of Education spokeswoman did not return phone calls.

No further information about the incident was immediately available, police said.

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