Prosecutors in Seminole County have decided not to file formal charges against a physics teacher at Lyman High School who was arrested because he put a 15-year-old student in a headlock and hauled him down a set of stairs.
School surveillance video showed that happening, according to a report at the State Attorney’s Office, but the teacher had a right to discipline the boy, who suffered no injury more serious than a red mark around his neck.
Delacruz, 38, of Oviedo, was arrested Jan. 30 after Longwood police looked at the same video and the mark on the boy’s neck and decided he was the victim of physical abuse.
On Thursday, however, the State Attorney’s Office weighed in.
In a memo, Assistant State Attorney Gino Feliciani wrote that DelaCruz had a right to discipline the 15-year-old boy. The student was running in a hallway, and when DelaCruz told him to stop, the child used an expletive.
DelaCruz then told the boy he was taking him to the principal’s office, and the boy used the same expletive again.
A school camera showed DelaCruz put his arms around the child’s shoulder, and the boy went limp. The teacher’s arm then went around the boy’s neck, and “DelaCruz can be seen pulling the child down the stairs,” Feliciani wrote.
At the bottom of the stairs, DelaCruz placed his arm around the boy’s waist, Feliciani wrote.
The boy went to an emergency room,and X-rays showed no injury, Feliciani wrote.
DelaCruz would not comment on Monday.
He remains on paid leave while the Seminole County School Board conducts an investigation, according to spokesman Michael Lawrence.
DelaCruz teaches physics at Lyman High. He has been employed by the school district as a full-time teacher since 2004.
rstutzman@orlandosentinel.com or 407-650-6394
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rstutzman@orlandosentinel.com or 407-650-6394
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