Ex-employee charged with child abuse for school 'fight club'
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A former employee of a Utah residential youth treatment facility is being accused of assaulting a 16-year-old boy as part of an unofficial "fight club" at the school.
The Utah County attorney's office said Friday that 21-year-old Misifoa Tautofi Seui Matagi hit the teenager at the Provo Canyon School in December. He faces one count of felony child abuse.
Charging documents allege the assault was part of an unofficial club where students and staff would punch each other in the chest. The teenager allegedly had at least two bruises from the incident.
Matagi says several students were in a room punching each other, one turned on him and he pushed the student away.