Sandra Hadsock, teacher caught on video punching student, says she wants her job back
A Florida high school teacher who punched a student said Monday that she just wants her job back.
Sandra Hadsock, a 22-year veteran art teacher, was caught on one of her student’s cell-phone cameras in an altercation with a boy who she said called her a vulgar name. She was seen in the tape apparently striking the student first as students gasped in horror.
Despite the controversy, Hadsock-voted the Tampa school’s 2010 Teacher of the Year-said she wanted to return to the classroom.
“I do want my job back because of the large percentage of students that are wonderful human beings, that are going to grow up to be productive, healthy, happy citizens and love art,” she said. ” love me, and I love them in return. It’s a small faction of students that’s making it so bad all across the nation.”
She said the tape didn’t show the entire story, though the student, who has not been identified because he is a minor, is heard saying, “I didn’t touch her. You guys saw that, right? I didn’t touch her.”
Other students are also heard shouting in defense of the student, though she said that many wrote in statements that he had struck her first.
“The tape only captured a small portion of the whole incident,” which lasted about a minute, Hadsock said on the ”Today” show. “That’s the second time he comes at me. The first time, he made physical contact and it was pretty frightening.”
The teacher was arrested after the incident and placed on indefinite leave. Last week prosecutors declined to press charges, saying they could not determine whether she struck the student in self-defense. She insisted she did – and her attorney hoped that the school would allow her to come back to work.
“We’re hoping that the school district recognizes the Teacher of the Year … and recognizes that she has a right to defend herself,” said Hadsock’s attorney, Ty Tison, on the show.
Hadsock has received an outpouring of support from the teachers union, as well as community members who vouched for her in the local paper.
“I just hope that Sandy is given the respect that she deserves and that justice will prevail and she is vindicated and given an apology for this disrespectful act,” Joe Nicolai wrote in a letter to the editor in Hernando Today.
“The parents should be slapped with a fine for allowing their child to speak to a teacher in that manner. I am so tired of seeing and hearing about the total disrespect students have for teachers nowadays. Whatever happened to good parenting and teaching a child to respect his or her elders?” another writer, Cheri Burge, added.
Video source . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=094S91r9FVE&oref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D094S91r9FVE&has_verified=1
