Florida student arrested for attacking a teacher’s aide has filed a complaint against the school district.
By Eileen Griffin
The mother of a high school student who attacked a teacher’s aide is blaming the school for his behavior.
A complaint has been filed against the Flagler County School District with the Florida Department of Education, The Post Millennial reports. The student, Brendan Depa, was 17 years old when the incident happened.
Depa has hired an attorney who claims it was the school’s fault that Depa violently attacked a school employee.
Video taken during the incident shows the student beating a teacher’s aide, Joan Naydich, in February of 2023, The Post Millennial reported at the time. The student was six-and-a-half feet tall and weighed 270 pounds.
The student allegedly attacked the teacher’s aide because she took away his Nintendo Switch, which he was not supposed to be using during class.
Video shows the student pushing the staff member to the ground where he punched and kicked her. When the school deputy arrived on the scene, the victim was unconscious and suffering from severe injuries.
Depa’s attorney, Stephanie Langer, told Fox that the entire incident could have been avoided and the proper placement of blame belongs with the Flagler School district.
“What we saw was a complete failure to do any evidence-based intervention practices to change his problem behaviors as identified by the school district,” Langer told the outlet.
The complaint alleges that the district failed to identify and correct behavior problems that had plagued the student for years.
After the student was arrested and charged, Depa’s mother told WESH that her adopted son, who is autistic, was failed by the system.
“He has ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder, reactive explosive disorder,” Leanne Depa said about her son. “He’s not a thug that was just out there and didn’t have parents who cared and didn’t have …” Depa told the outlet.
“It was the system that failed him, that he was placed in public school, and that once he was in there, the IEP (Individual Education Plan) was not followed. People who should have known better than to use his Nintendo Switch, which was his trigger, as a motivator.”
Depa said that if her son’s IEP had been followed the incident would have never occurred. The IEP said, “Electronics are a precursor to more severe behaviors.”
The attorney’s petition stated that the school district allowed the student to do whatever he wanted with no consequence. The school should have interfered sooner with his behavior.
After Naydich took the Nintendo Switch. Depa began to spit at the Teacher’s Aide. Naydich walked out of the classroom at that point to report his behavior to the administration. Depa followed her out of the classroom and began beating her, The Blaze reports.
Naydich suffered five broken ribs, multiple bruises, a severe concussion, and hearing loss from the attack.
“Not only did the attorneys blame the school district, but they also suggested that Naydich asked for her own beating after she reprimanded Depa in front of his classmates,” Collin Jones writes for The Blaze.
Naydich told WPDE that Depa deserves the maximum sentence for what he did to her.
“He definitely needs to be in jail,” Naydich said, “He needs to be in jail for what he did to me. I’m in my own jail of sorts every single day I wake up.”
Some activists are seeking to reduce his penalty due to his claimed disabilities. Naydich says his mother is exaggerating his condition.
“He’s not autistic like everybody believes he is,” Naydich told the outlet. “They are painting a picture of him that he’s not able to think for himself. He’s working on his GED in jail and he almost has it. His mother has painted a picture of him that he’s incapable of putting socks on.”
Depa has pleaded no contest to aggravated battery. He could face up to 30 years in prison.
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