MINNEAPOLIS — A judge on Monday found a Minnesota substitute teacher guilty of mistreating students at an elementary school, where authorities say she kicked a fifth-grade student in the shin and slapped another in the face.

Laura Avery, 60, was found guilty of four charges of malicious punishment of a child. She was acquitted on a charge of tampering with a witness. A sentencing date has not been set.

A home phone number for Avery could not be found. A phone message from left after hours for her attorney was not immediately returned.

According to the charges, a school employee found four students crying in the hallway on Dec. 13, 2012. The students said Avery swore at them and threatened to slap them if they didn’t do what she asked.

Prosecutors determined that Avery later took three students to a school “quiet” room, grabbing one student by the shoulder so hard that a school nurse observed redness on the boy. Another student told state investigators that Avery grabbed his neck and pushed him into the room.

In a separate incident, a girl told investigators that Avery slapped her face, pulled her hair and grabbed her around the neck so tightly that it was difficult to breathe. A 10-year-old boy told investigators that Avery kicked him in the shin on the way to recess. A school nurse documented a bruise on the boy’s shin where he said Avery kicked him.

Other students corroborated the four students’ version of events, according to the charges.

Avery later admitted to investigators that the students “made a big deal of the names she called them … (that they) hate it when (she doesn’t) know their names.” She denied using an obscenity the students claimed she said.

Bloomington school officials say they removed Avery from the classroom as soon as they became aware of the incident. She started doing substitute teaching for the suburban district in 2003.

“She was removed from the substitute rolls and will never be contacted by our district again,” Bloomington Public Schools spokesman Rick Kaufman said.