Woman Gets 6 Months in Teacher Assault : North Hollywood: Benita McCrae tells the judge she is not a violent person. He calls the classroom attack on Marjan Swantek, 64, ‘totally unacceptable.’

A North Hollywood woman who assaulted her daughter’s 64-year-old kindergarten teacher in front of a classroom full of children was sentenced Tuesday to six months in jail.

Benita McCrae, 30, told San Fernando Superior Court Judge John H. Major that although she was sorry for the Oct. 3 attack on teacher Marjan Swantek, she was frustrated with school administrators who ignored her complaints about the instructor.

McCrae said Swantek was too harsh in scolding her 5-year-old daughter.

“I am not a violent person,” she said softly.

McCrae, who stands six feet tall and weighs 240 pounds, admitted that she grabbed Swantek around the neck, but she denied lifting the instructor off the ground and throwing her to the floor, as alleged in police reports.

She pleaded no contest Oct. 23 to a single felony count of battery against a school employee. In exchange, prosecutors dropped a charge of threatening a school employee.

Major ordered McCrae to undergo a psychiatric evaluation and scolded the woman for the attack, telling her the action was “totally unacceptable.”

“You created a scene there and it was a very traumatic experience for everyone,” he said.

According to Swantek, McCrae burst into her classroom at Toluca Lake Elementary School and began to choke her and slam her against a wall.

Swantek said the attack left her with bruises and scratches on her neck and a bruised elbow.

McCrae had spent the previous day in the classroom observing Swantek teach. She returned briefly the next day, telling Swantek that if she did not change her teaching methods, there was “going to be trouble,” Swantek said.

After McCrae left, her daughter told Swantek she would be fired, and the teacher told the child to be quiet. McCrae then returned and assaulted the teacher, according to the case against McCrae.

In sentencing McCrae, Major rejected Deputy Dist. Atty. Kenneth Barshop’s request for the maximum jail term of one year. Barshop argued that a stiffer penalty would serve as an example to others.

“Word will go out that these actions will not be tolerated,” Barshop said. “Word will go out to the teachers that they have a right to be protected in their classrooms.”

Deputy Public Defender Arthur Wynn said McCrae acted out of passion and frustration.

“This was not a deliberate act of violence,” he said. “This was a knee-jerk reaction to something that happened in the classroom.”