ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — Three St. Johns County school district employees whom the superintendent originally recommended to be fired are all keeping their jobs.
It all stemmed from an ordeal caught on surveillance video, which shows a struggle between an 8th grade student, the Sebastian Middle School dean and two physical education teachers.
St. Johns County School Board Chairman Patrick Canan said, after hearing a day’s worth of Dean Pete Sharman’s testimony in a hearing Wednesday, it’s clear Sharman behaved inappropriately, but doesn’t think it should wreck his lengthy career.
The superintendent originally said he wanted Sharman and physical education teachers Jarrod Branco and Robert O’Shell fired after seeing surveillance video of them manhandling the student.
The video appears to show the three school employees trying to wrestle the student into a wheelchair. The student then appears to fight back and tries to get away.
“This roughness with him is probably over the top. These individuals are not trained in controlling people. As a result it looks worse than it is,” said Action News Jax Law & Safety Expert Dale Carson.
The two teachers accepted the superintendent’s deal for 15 days of unpaid suspension and anger management training.
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Dean Sharman did not.
Canan said Sharman did not “acknowledge any wrongdoing” in Wednesday’s hearing.
The school board didn’t buy that. Now Sharman will continue to be suspended without pay the rest of the semester and will have to take anger management training.
Action News Jax asked the school board chair what was behind the superintendent’s change of heart about firing the three employees.
“Well, I think because he gathered more information. When he made the initial recommendation, he had not heard from the three teachers,” Canan said.
All three of the school employees involved are being reassigned to different schools. Canan said he did not know where they will wind up.