MIAMI LAKES, Fla. – A disturbing encounter between a student and a substitute teacher was captured on cell phone camera.
That teacher can be seen taking the teenager to the ground inside the classroom at Barbara Goleman Senior High.
Danny Echavarria told Local 10′s Ian Margol that he was in that classroom on Monday, explaining the student in the video had been asking to use the restroom.
“Definitely crazy to see in math. Just trying to do my work, you know?” Echavarria said.
Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the number of students allowed to go to the bathroom at one time is being limited at the school.
Due to this, the substitute teacher told the student he would have to wait until another classmate got back. But after nearly half an hour passed, the student got tired of waiting.
“After waiting for a while, the kid just decided to walk out and the sub tried to stop him, and it just got into like a wrestle match,” said Echavarria.
The video begins with the student trying to force his way out the door, and the teacher can be heard asking him to go back to his seat.
“You’re just a kid I don’t want to touch you. Go sit down,” the teacher is heard saying in the video.
But the student didn’t listen and continued trying to force his way out the door, which is when things turned physical.
The student pushed the door open and the substitute teacher grabs him, pulling him back in. The student then wraps his arms around the teacher’s neck.
The two stumble into a podium that was just inside the classroom door, before the teacher slams the student onto the ground.
Local 10 reached out to Miami-Dade Schools regarding the video. They said, in a statement:
“We are conducting a thorough review of this incident. The temporary instructor will not be placed at any school pending the outcome of the investigation.”
Local 10′s Ian Margol asked several students about the substitute teacher, and they said he’s a regular at the school and seems like a pretty nice guy, and that they had never seen anything like that before.
“He’s not a bad guy,” Echavarria said. “He’s not like very confrontational like that, but things just happened to get out of hand that day.”
The school district said the teacher has been a substitute with Miami-Dade for about two years and has no other disciplinary history.
As for the student in the video, he has also not faced any discipline yet.