Grandmother arrested for cruelty to Webster School student

A St Johns County School District employee noticed that a Webster Elementary School student was acting unusually withdrawn and quiet last week, so they asked the little girl what was wrong.

According to the St Augustine Police incident report, the child responded by telling the school nurse that her back hurt. When the nurse checked the girl in the school clinic, she discovered red and purple bruising up and down the girl’s back.

Confronted with the injuries, reported to be about 2-inches to 4-inches in size, the child informed the nurse that her grandmother, 52-year-old Debra Ann Osickey, who resides at 3575 Gaines Road in St Augustine, hit her with a belt during the time she was left in her care.

The child’s mother told St Augustine Police that while getting the girl ready for school on Friday, she saw the bruising and asked the child’s grandmother what had happened. In a sworn statement to police, the mother told police that Osickey responded saying that the girl had fallen on a toy. The mother left the child at the school.

Evidence, including photographs of the child’s injuries, was collected by policed and used to obtain an arrest warrant charging Osickey with cruelty towards a child where the abuse causes great bodily harm or disability — a first-degree felony.

Osickey remains in custody in lieu of $10,000 bond.