John Jefferson
Left: Tashiska Fabian (Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office) Center: the classroom incident (WFLA). Right: Bennie Leverett (Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office).
A vice principal in Florida is reportedly out of a job after she not only failed to report a classroom brawl between a teacher and a student, but also “instructed” another student who recorded the incident to delete the “chokehold” footage, authorities allege.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said that the chokehold incident itself at Progress Village Middle School happened in mid-January and initially resulted in the March arrest of 39-year-old teacher Bennie Leverett, who went on to resign from his job for allegedly “restricting the student’s ability to breathe” in the felony child abuse case, local NBC affiliate WFLA reported, citing a Hillsborough County Public Schools statement.
Tashiska Fabian, 41, the vice principal who is reportedly no longer employed by the district and hasn’t been on school grounds since the child abuse investigation began in February, is now accused of knowing about the classroom fight but failing to report it, a third-degree felony for a mandatory reporter who does not report child abuse to the Department of Children and Families or law enforcement.
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Instead, Fabian allegedly took a step in the exact opposite direction by getting the video deleted, to no avail.
Fabian “met with Leverett and the student after becoming aware of the incident” but “did not report the matter to the child abuse hotline or law enforcement,” the sheriff’s office said. Rather, when she “learned that a student had recorded the incident between the teacher and student on video,” she “instructed the student to delete the footage” at issue and the video was deleted.
Authorities said that they nonetheless have video footage of the classroom fight, and part of it was aired by WFLA.
The video shows a chaotic scene inside a classroom, where students looked on as a teacher, identified as Leverett, for “several minutes” allegedly put a 14-year-old male student in a chokehold. Another student, seemingly the one recording the incident, could be heard shouting “he’s dying, you’re killing him.”
Sheriff Chad Chronister reacted to Fabian’s Sept. 4 arrest by calling the video “deeply troubling” and slamming the former assistant principal for a “complete betrayal of trust.”
“It is deeply troubling that a teacher would harm a student, but even more so when a person in a position of authority fails to do the right thing and report the crime. This is a complete betrayal of trust within our community,” he said. “I’m proud of the witness who stepped up and did the right thing by reporting the incident, ensuring law enforcement could step in and bring justice for the victim.”
The school district, for its part, reportedly said “neither” Fabian nor Leverett “has been on our campus since last February,” that Fabian was “never allowed to return to the school” from that month on, and that she was ultimately “let go.”
Court records reviewed by Law&Crime show that Fabian is expected to appear in court for an arraignment on the morning of Sept. 25.
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On Thursday, Leverett’s defense lawyer moved to withdraw from the case, writing that he just learned through discovery that one of the state’s witnesses in the case is a woman he’s represented “in relation to this matter.”
“[T]he undersigned counsel cannot ethically continue representing the Defendant,” said the motion to withdraw.
Leverett has pleaded not guilty and both defendants were released from jail, records show.
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