A Florida teacher was arrested and charged with simple battery, a misdemeanor, for carrying an unruly 14-year-old boy out of his classroom.
Jeffrey Paffumi, 47, said the boy disrupted the classroom by playing music on his laptop computer. When Paffumi turned the music down, the student “slapped his hand away and turned the music back on,” according to a police report.
Paffumi said the boy called him a “cracker”.
“Show me how tough you are. Wanna Call me a ‘cracker,'” he told the boy.
Paffumi lifted the boy out of his chair and carried him to the classroom doorway, then pushed him out into the hallway. Paffumi told police he removed the student from the classroom because the boy was “being disobedient.”
The incident occurred during first period at Buddy Middle School in Palm Coast, Florida on Tuesday.
Later that night, the student told his parents about the incident. An unidentified student sent them cell phone video of the incident.
Even though the boy’s father said his son was wrong for slapping the teacher’s hand, the parents filed a police report with the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday.
The teen said the teacher did not restrict his airway and the boy was not harmed in any way.
“As a teacher you have to control your temper even when students test you,” said Sheriff Rick Staly. “This is an unfortunate incident involving a teacher and student… Corporal punishment like the old days is not allowed today.”
Flagler Schools Superintendent James Tager said in a news release: “We immediately removed Mr. Paffumi from the classroom following the incident… I have stressed to my executive team the importance of handling this investigation with the utmost seriousness it deserves.”
He added that an internal “investigation will encompass the incident in its entirety and not just what is captured on a camera.”
