Teacher Blamed For Student’s Broken Neck
BY BUDDY NEVINS
A 14-year-student had his neck broken during an attack at a Miramar public school after a teacher allowed them to “to do essentially what they wanted,” according to the boy’s attorney.
Taishawn Yee had finished the FCAT exam on April 28th when his New Renaissance Middle School history teacher allowed him and other students “to horse around,” attorney Adam Baron says.
“My client and another bigger boy were lifting each other up,” Baron says.
The teacher did nothing, he alleges.
Baron says Yee became wary of the other boy, who was aggressive. Yee started to run around the desk to get away.
The teacher did nothing, Baron alleges.
Roughhousing continued into the hallway at the end of class. The attorney says that is when the bigger boy came up behind Yee and threw him to the ground.
Yee suffered three fractured vertebrae in the neck.
“He’s in a substantial neck brace,” Baron says.
Yee plans to sue the school system later in the year. State law mandates a six month grace period.
Baron says the school system police had investigated the incident, but Yee’s parents do not want to file a criminal complaint.
Here is the news release from Baron’s office:
Middle School Student Injured from Attack by Another Student
Eighth Grader at New Renaissance Middle school suffers broken neck from attack by another student.
Eighth grader, Taishawn Yee, was unexpectedly picked up and thrown down by another student as he walked down the hallway of New Renaissance Middle School on April 28th. The impact was with such force that it caused Taishawn to fracture three vertebrae in his neck. He was rushed by ambulance to Memorial West and then transferred to Joe DiMaggio’s Children’s hospital where he was admitted for neck surgery and had to have screws inserted.
The incident stemmed from the last period where the children, who had been busy taking FCATS earlier that day, were given a free period by their history teacher to do essentially what they wanted. The boys started to engage in horseplay, attempting to lift each other in the classroom which apparently went unnoticed or ignored by the teacher.
Yee’s attacker, a boy who had been previously kicked out of another classroom only days before, wanted to pick him up during the class and Taishawn ran from him. Apparently not satisfied that he didn’t get the opportunity to pick up Taishawn during class followed Taishawn after class in the hallway, snuck up from behind him and threw him down to the ground.
The school was clearly negligent in allowing the boys to engage in horseplay during the classroom, an activity which was easily foreseeable to continue once class was over. Furthermore, no security was present in the hallway, which would have prevented Taishawn’s attacker from acting out. Given that this boy had a history of problems, the question has to also be asked what was he doing in Taishawn’s classroom in the first place.
Location of Incident: New Renaissance Middle School is a Broward County Public School located at 10701 Miramar Blvd, Miramar, FL 33025
May 14th, 2014 at 6:59 pm
There are thousands of teachers. Like any large group of employees, some are excellent, some are good, some are average and some are bad or very bad. We don’t know the validity of these charges. Even if they are accurate, they only reflect on the teacher and not on the Broward Schools as a whole.
May 14th, 2014 at 7:56 pm
” Given that this boy had a history of problems, the question has to also be asked what was he doing in Taishawn’s classroom in the first place.”
If every student with a history of problems were removed from the classroom, class size would never be a problem. Honestly, spend a few hours in middle school sometime.
May 14th, 2014 at 9:01 pm
A situation like this requires tons and tons of facts or you can’t properly judge what happened much less what should have happened.
And isn’t Adam Baron the husband of Tamarac Talk? Do you guys trade stories or something?
FROM BUDDY:
I and the rest of the media received a news release by e-mail. I have never met nor did I know of any relationship between Adam Baron and Tamarac Talk.
May 15th, 2014 at 8:24 am
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
May 16th, 2014 at 9:49 am
Buddy, You need to look at why our school district insists of having it own Internal Police department, also known as the Internal Cover up Department. This department does not provide any security at our schools, It only investigates. Resource officers are provided by the local city. If Runcie wants an open and transparent school system, then dissolving the internal police department, would be a good start, have BSO or other agencies absorb them, put that money back into the classroom. The school district complains it is short money. Here’s over 2 million dollars. If this would have happened at a private school, charter school or any other setting this would be investigated by the appropriate outside agency. It’s worth mentioning this department is the one that is responsible for allowing police officer’s to have free rent, free electricity and free water going to their trailer on school property with no contract requiring them to do anything in exchange for living their.