Florida teacher arrested, fired for hitting student with a broomstick

ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. — A teacher in south Florida is facing criminal charges and has been fired from her job after a video appears to show her hitting a student with a broomstick.

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St. Lucie County sheriff’s deputies announced Cyntyche Darling Lundy’s arrest in a Facebook post, saying she was charged with child abuse.

In video shared with deputies and WPEC by the student’s mother, the child swears at the teacher, who hits him with the broomstick, causing him to scream.

According to the arrest report obtained by WPTV, Darling Lundy had been using the broom to sweep her classroom when the metal handle broke off. The victim then picked up the broken handle and ran around with it. Investigators said Darling Lundy was “angered by his behavior” and threw the broom handle at the child, missing him and breaking a computer screen, WPTV reported. The arrest report goes on to say that the teacher pinned the child between two desks and hit him three times with the broom handle on his leg, hand and arm.

“It’s wrong, it’s called abuse,” the child’s mother, Joselyn Destine, told WPEC.

In her statement to school officials, Darling Lundy allegedly said that the student was “acting in a playful manner and not following instruction,” WPTV reported. In the statement, she allegedly said “She did not write the victim up because it was a ‘Playful’ interaction. She said she later gave him chewing gum, and the next day, asked for a hug,” WPTV reported.

Darling Lundy was fired from her job at Forest Grove Middle School, a St. Lucie Public Schools spokesperson told WPTV.

The video was recorded by 12-year-old Seth McClanahan, who is also a student in the class.

“I asked him why he did that,” McClanahan’s mother, Menda Potter, told WPBF. “And he said, ‘To protect my friend. I don’t want this teacher hurting nobody else.’”

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