A longtime Allen teacher stands accused of using a cooking pan to burn the buttocks of a 14-year-old disabled boy in early 2008.

A Collin County grand jury indicted Susanne Means earlier this month on a charge of injury to a child, a first-degree felony.

The indictment says she knowingly caused serious bodily injury to the boy, using a cooking pan and also an unknown object. The incident is alleged to have occurred at Lowery Freshman Center, an Allen ISD school.

Means denied harming the boy when interviewed by police on March 13, 2008, a police affidavit shows.

She could not be reached Monday.

Means, 45, was a special education teacher at Lowery when the allegation surfaced in early March 2008.

She was reassigned from classroom teaching on March 12, 2008, and worked in the administration building in the last school year, said Kent Turner, chief human resources officer for Allen ISD.

Turner said Means resigned from the district earlier this month. She had worked for Allen ISD since 1997.

An Allen police affidavit filed on July 9, 2008, says Means caused burns to the boy, and describes him as "mentally challenged."

The affidavit says the boy's father became aware of the boy's injuries in early March 2008 and took him to a physician.

The physician found a 12-inch diameter "scald" in a circular pattern on the buttocks. The boy later told an interviewer that the teacher applied a hot pan once to each of his buttocks, the affidavit says.

The investigating officer found her classroom included a kitchen that had a stove and "various cookware," the affidavit says.

The affidavit also says Means failed a polygraph test administered by a U.S. Secret Service agent.

Means was booked into the Collin County Detention Center on July 30, 2008, and posted bail the same day. An Allen police spokeswoman said she did not know why nearly a year passed before the grand jury returned an indictment.

Prosecutors could not be reached.