JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A former Duval County teacher's assistant is facing child abuse charges from an altercation with two students in December, News4Jax has learned.
According to Duval County School Board investigative reports, teacher assistant Robert Fields resigned, rather than face termination proceedings.
The reports said Fields told two students at Arlington Middle School to get back inside after they left a building with a basketball and a football without permission.
The students obeyed, but refused to hand over the balls and started to play keep-away with Fields, bouncing the balls off walls and windows.
That led to a physical confrontation between Fields and both students, the reports said.
"Just because you couldn't apprehend them there, get them to do what you want right then, still you know who they are so he could've handled that much differently," said Gil Smith, News4Jax crime and safety analyst.
Fields wrestled one to the floor and took the football away from him, and he shoved the other student several times in the chest and brought him into an intervention room, according to the reports.
Once inside, Fields and the second student got into a wrestling match, which only broke up when Duval County School Police Officer Ryan Goethe opened the door.
Fields told Goethe the student punched him in the face several times, and Goethe arrested the student.
No surveillance video was available from the intervention room, but there was video from the hallway. Goethe did not retrieve that video for days, and when he did, he could see that Fields initiated the violence.
He told his supervisor, Sgt. Leslie Sams, and the State Attorney’s Office was advised about what the surveillance video showed.
Charges were dropped against the student, who was released from juvenile lockup after nine days.
Child abuse charges were filed against Fields.
Both officers were found to have violated School Board police procedures, but News4Jax has not been able to confirm what discipline they faced.
Smith, who's a former school resource officer, said authority figures always have to remain calm, even when students are disobedient.
"In a situation like that, it would be best to report them to the office. You know who they are. You have their names. You can get some other teachers, maybe the school resource officer, to go to the students. And they would probably face further disciplinary action for disrupting a school function or disobeying the orders of a teacher," Smith said.