ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — No criminal charges will be filed against three Sebastian Middle School educators after an incident that the St. Johns County School District called "alleged agressive behavior used while handling a student."
The educators involved in the Sept. 16 incident were physical education teachers Jarrod Branco and Robert O'Shell and school dean Pete Sharman. According to a St. Johns County Sheriff's Office report, an eighth-grade student was being loud in the cafeteria and Sharman asked him to be quiet. The student did not comply and Sharman then asked the student to leave the cafeteria.
The sheriff's office says the student again did not comply and Sharman had Branco and O'Shell assist him in removing the student from the cafeteria, as another lunch period would be starting in 30 minutes. A school resource officer was not on the campus at the time, according to the report. Sharman had a staff member bring a wheelchair into the cafeteria. On surveillance video, the report states, it appears that Sharman tried to grab the student's "left wrist in a manner consistent with an escort position," but the student then began to "violently swing" his arms.
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The report says O'Shell held the wheelchair while Sharman and Branco tried to secure the student in the wheelchair, but according to the report, the student violently wiggled their whole body and stood up and could be seen on the video trying to "break free from their (the educators') grip." According to the report, Branco then held the student's left wrist, O'Shell held the student's right wrist and Sharman held the student by the belt and escorted the student out of the cafeteria when they were unable to restrain him in the chair.
The student complained to a deputy who arrived later that his arm hurt.
Investigators determined that the student "was being insubordinate to the authority figure at the time" and that the educators' actions were "reasonable and do not constitute a criminal act under Florida Law," the report detailed.
Sharman, Branco and O'Shell were suspended with pay by the school district and the three employees were recommended for termination, a matter that will go before the full school board on October 13.
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