Substitute teachers usually hope to make it through the day without incident.
But, one woman took the wrong route to solve a dispute.
And a Florida substitute teacher asked her students one question that could land her in jail.
Florida substitute teacher reportedly asks her students to beat up their classmate
Geanene White, a 57-year-old, was called in to serve as a substitute teacher at the YMCA Tiger Academy in Jacksonville, Florida.
The charter school serves students in kindergarten through third grade.
White had her classroom break up into small groups to work on a project.
One of the elementary school students was not being cooperative with the substitute teacher.
White resorted to something not found in any teaching manual.
“Who in here can beat him up?” White asked the class, according to the police report.
Four students raised their hands and began taking turns to beat up the uncooperative boy.
White allegedly pushed the boy after the students were done beating him up, which caused him to “hit his head on the desk.”
The substitute teacher called for help, and two staff members at the elementary school came to her aid.
She never told them that the boy had been beaten up and instead told the staffers he “needed behavioral assistance.”
Substitute teacher gets acquainted with law enforcement
The students told staffers at YMCA Tiger Academy that White was encouraging students in her classroom to beat the boy up.
White denied the allegation and claimed that she did not ask anyone if they could beat the boy up.
But one of the students who volunteered for the fight told the police that the “teacher told him to do it” or else he would not have attacked his fellow student.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said that the boy beaten up by his classmates had cuts and bruises on his face.
White was arrested and charged with child abuse and four counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor for ordering the beat down of the student.
YMCA Tiger Academy and the Duval County Public Schools claimed that they had conducted a thorough background check on White before she was hired as a substitute teacher.
The elementary school did damage control in a statement announcing that White had been fired after the incident.
“The First Coast YMCA was made aware of an incident at Tiger Academy involving a student and a substitute teacher who had been properly vetted by both the First Coast YMCA and Duval County Public Schools. The safety and well-being of our students and staff have and will always be our top priority, and as such, we investigated the matter immediately according to protocol. Upon completion of the internal investigation, we terminated the substitute teacher’s employment,” the school said in a statement.
“We immediately reported the incident to the Department of Children and Families, who are conducting an ongoing investigation in collaboration with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. All further inquiries about the incident should be directed to them,” the school added.
Geanene White could not keep her cool in the classroom, and it is going to cost her big time.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
