I think it was Woody Allen, who once wrote: “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach. And those who can’t teach — teach gym!”
You might think that there is some truth to that statement after you learn what a gym teacher in New York did to land himself in hot water.
According to police, a substitute gym teacher lost it with an 11-year-old student during an innocent game of dodgeball last week.
Police say 58-year-old Daniel Sanabria of New Rochelle, got into a fight with the sixth grader at the end of a gym class dodgeball game. Sanabria is accused of calling the boy a “crybaby,” and putting him in a chokehold.
Bye, bye Teacher of the Year award… hello jail cell.
For the record, Sanabria vehemently denies attacking the boy. Rather, the gym teacher maintains that the ball brawl began in the gym of the Daniel Webster Elementary School after he ruled the student out.
“[The boy] insisted he was never out,” Sanabria told a New York newspaper. “He wouldn’t sit out when I asked him to.”
Police say things escalated when “the kid was walking away, and the gym teacher started calling him things like ‘a big baby’ and ‘crybaby.’” Officers say the sub then pushed the student’s head into a wall, and threw him onto the ground before “picking him up from the ground by wrapping his arm around his neck and body, causing the student substantial pain.”
Reports indicate that the student suffered marks on his right arm from where the teacher grabbed him, but Sanabria denies it all, and contends the student threw a punch first.
“As he was being walked away my back was away from him when he ran up to me; he started punching and kicking me,” Sanabria told reporters. “I turned around, and I warded him off with my hands. I grabbed his foot, secured him and gave him to the teacher in the hallway.”
“I never choked a child,” Sanabria insisted. “I acted to promote the welfare of both of us.”
Sanabria went on to say that he is “neither a criminal nor a child abuser.” Still, he faces charges of third-degree assault, aggravated harassment and endangering the welfare of a child.
What do you make of this brouhaha?
Gym teachers have a reputation for being bullies… mine was, but she always kept her hands to herself, and instead, used her tongue to do her whipping.
Related Articles:
Driver’s Education-Who Was Your Teacher?
How Much Do You Help With Homework?
Do You Punish Your Kids for Bad Grades?
Are You a Teacher’s Worst Nightmare?