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Ex-teacher's aide charged with failing to break up student fight speaks out

OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — A former Osceola County teacher's aide charged with child neglect for not breaking up a fight is speaking out against the district that fired her.

Investigators said in January, 2014, Kristie Gilmore and Mona Sagar stood by and watched a fight at Discovery Intermediate School.

But Gilmore told Channel 9 anchor Nancy Alvarez the district ignored her calls for help.

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Gilmore said there is a lot more to the story than the video shows. She said the fight could have been prevented and that more needs to be done for special-needs students, not just at her former school but across the district.

It might have been shocking to some, but to Gilmore, the fight that played out in her classroom was not a surprise.

"That, to me, was normal behavior with these children," Gilmore said.

Gilmore has spent 10 years working with special-needs students, including many who are prone to violence.

"I've been beaten, punched in the eye. I've been smacked, hit in the back," Gilmore said.

But Gilmore, a mother of five, said she still loved her job and never imagined that her decision not to step into the fight would lead to her arrest on charges of child neglect.

"I was pregnant. If I was not pregnant, I would have gotten in the middle of those two boys," Gilmore said.

But when Alvarez asked Gilmore why she didn't call for help, she said she didn't think it would do any good.

"We have had issues before. We have called on the radio. No answer; (we were) told to wait," she said. "We were told, 'Pick and choose your battles. You can't call for everything.' We put in a referral like we're supposed to, and the punishment to us wasn't adequate."

Gilmore also said teacher's aides districtwide are often assigned to special-needs students with whom they're not qualified to work, and she said training falls short.

Gilmore talked about her own training on how to restrain students.

"The restraining techniques only work on a child that is from my chest level down. There were only two kids in that class that were below my chest level and down, and that year, I wasn't allowed to go back and re-certify. I was not trained," Gilmore said.

She said she's speaking out to raise awareness and because the children deserved better.

"I did my job the best I could. I made a judgment call that day," Gilmore said.

The criminal charges against Gilmore and her coworker were dropped.

Channel 9 sent the district a list of her claims and asked officials to address each one.

The district only issued a statement, saying: "After three days of hearings, the administrative law judge found sufficient cause for dismissal of both employees."

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