A South Florida teacher learned a lesson in the law after she was arrested for allegedly hitting a 5-year-old student on the face with a ruler. Chrishawn Nicholson stood before Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Mindy S. Glazer, Friday morning. The 25-year-old faces one count of child abuse. Speaking with 7News in December, the mother of the student who, police said, was hit with the ruler said her son was left her son scarred, physically and emotionally. “This was a gash. This wasn’t just a hit, this wasn’t just a little minor cut that you can just put a Band-Aid. This was a deep cut that required him to get stitches,” said the mother. The parent, who did not want to be identified, said the incident happened Nov. 19 at Aspire Preparatory Academy, located near Northwest 34th Avenue and 213th Street in Miami Gardens. “I received a message from the teacher with her telling me that he was injured,” said the mother. According to her arrest report, Nicholson told the parent that her son was playing with a pencil and got cut near his eyebrow. On the way to the emergency room, however, the child told a different story. “I asked him what happened, and he let me know his teacher did hit him with a ruler,” said the mother. “It’s scary, because you send your child to school for eight hours of the day thinking that your child is in good hands.” The boy needed three stitches. Once his mother reported the incident, the Florida Department of Children and Families began investigating. Their report states: “During his medical evaluation, the victim reported, ‘My teacher hit me with a ruler,’ and then demonstrated how he was hit.” Nicholson turned herself in on Thursday. Her lawyer asked Glazer to allow her to keep working as a teacher. “This is a very minor hiccup or confusion, that I don’t believe that she should be strayed away from being able to work with children,” said the attorney. “I’m not going to order her that she can’t work in her profession, because it could be an isolated incident,” said Glazer. “No matter how frustrated you are, you shouldn’t take it out on that child, to where now this child, it could’ve been his eye; it was so close to his eye. Then he would’ve been blind for the rest of his life. Then what?” said the student’s mother. Nicholson remains in jail. Aspire Preparatory Academy did not immediately respond to 7News’ request for comment about the teacher’s arrest.