Judge says teacher who put kid in chokehold should keep his job. Will school leaders agree?

School leaders in Palm Beach County are again at odds with a judge about whether a teacher should lose their job.

This time, it's Boca Raton Middle school teacher Victor Lopez, who faces termination after students said he put a child in a chokehold and called others inappropriate nicknames such as "knucklehead," "Shaniqua" and "Oompa Loompa" in class.

Lopez was fired in September 2022 and appealed the school board's decision. He and his attorney presented evidence at a hearing on June 14 and 15 in front of administrative law Judge June McKinney, who then said in a Sept. 29 recommendation that Lopez should not have been fired.

More: Teacher was suspended for hitting kids with yardsticks. Now he's been fired for chokeholds.

Instead, McKinney said he should be suspended without pay for 30 days with one year of probation and be required to take a class on professionalism.

"There is no question that Lopez’s poor judgment of referring to students by nicknames, flicking students with a light tap to get them to pay attention in class, and mimicking a chokehold without pressure in celebration were inappropriate interactions and not displaying the best in professional judgment because students should be addressed by their names and not touched," she wrote.

But, she said there was no threat of harm or any actual harm done to students in his class, and therefore he should not be fired.

The first reports of inappropriate behavior by Lopez came just months after he was suspended in February 2022 for striking a student with a yardstick, which was caught on video.

More: Teacher was suspended for hitting kids with yardsticks. Now he's been fired for chokeholds.

Schools Superintendent Mike Burke opposed several of McKinney's findings and remained steadfast in his decision to fire Lopez. The school board agreed with Burke's opposition at a preliminary hearing Wednesday.

It's the second time this year that a teacher who was previously fired by the school district appealed to an administrative law judge who instead recommended the teacher be suspended. In August, a judge said that K.E. Cunningham/Canal Point Elementary teacher Dianne Baumann should not have been fired after she told a student "f*** you" and told another student he was "stupid."

More: Palm Beach County teacher who told student 'f*** you' shouldn't have been fired, judge says

The school board ultimately disregarded the recommendation by Judge Robert Kilbride and voted to terminate Baumann in October.

Now, the board will vote whether to terminate Lopez or follow McKinney's advice and suspend him at the Dec. 13 school board meeting.

"I cannot, in all honesty, vote to bring someone back after we've given so many chances," board member Marcia Andrews said.

Lopez was suspended previously for video showing him hitting student with yardstick

Though Lopez, 49, has worked in the district since 2005, he had been a math teacher at Boca Raton Middle School only since September 2021, district documents show.

He was moved to Boca Raton as a result of a 2021 investigation that found he regularly struck and tapped children with a yardstick at Loggers' Run Middle, which is west of Boca Raton. He was suspended for 10 days for those incidents. While school police sought battery charges, the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office declined to prosecute him.

But Lopez soon became the subject of a new investigation.

In May 2022, he came under scrutiny because students at Boca Raton Middle reported that Lopez had placed them in chokeholds. A dozen students reported they'd had some sort of "hands-on interaction" with their teacher, whether it be him placing them in headlocks, flicking them or lightly punching them.

While many of the 16 students interviewed thought Lopez's actions were intended to be jokes, some reported being hurt by him or being offended by his classroom behavior.

In another incident, Lopez reportedly flicked the back of a student's neck in class and then blamed it on another student. When the accused student said it wasn't him, Lopez said, "No, it was you," stood up and put him in a chokehold.

"In short words, Mr. Lopez always seemed to have a fascination with touching, flicking and throwing things at/on students," the student wrote.

Others reported Lopez threw markers at students, pulled their ears, twisted their hair and punched them in the arm. Several of the students said they saw Lopez touch mostly male students.

Eight students of the 16 interviewed reported being called nicknames including Beavis, Peter Griffin, four eyes, Oompa Loompa, mophead, Thing 1 and Thing 2, Ken doll and Barbie doll.

While some were intended to be lighthearted, like "knucklehead," several of the students reported Lopez going too far and being disrespectful. He called Black students Will Smith, Sh'naenae or Shaniqua, the district reports say.

"Truthfully, because I'm Black and Sh'naenae is a character from an old TV show. Her archetype is like a stereotypical Black girl, loud, kind of mouthy," one student, identified only by her initials, told investigators.

Lopez in June admitted to investigators some of the allegations by students.

He said he used chokeholds as "rewards," more like a "hug," and that he sometimes threw markers toward students but didn't hit them. Lopez said he used funny nicknames from TV shows and group names such as "funky monkeys and Oompa Loompas."

But he denied using other nicknames like "mophead," "four eyes" and "Shaniqua." He also denied pinching students.

Students told investigators Lopez only mimicked a chokehold in class

At issue now is whether progressive discipline should run its course and lead to Lopez's termination.

"Termination is not extreme," district assistant general counsel Jean Marie Middleton said Wednesday. "It is the next level of progressive discipline. He already had a suspension."

But Lopez's attorney, Nathan Soowal, said the school board should give deference to the judge who recommended another suspension. He argued that the school board should not undermine her findings of facts in the case.

He also pointed to interviews with students that showed Lopez only mimicked a chokehold on a student and did not actually apply pressure that would have made it hard for the student to breathe.

"The school board should not be able to modify the (judge's) findings," he said at the hearing. "There’s no evidence in the record whatsoever that there was an actual chokehold here."

Still, school board members said Wednesday that they don't feel that students are safe in his class. They chose to vote on Lopez's termination at their next meeting.

"When I read about all the things that were happening in that classroom, as a former teacher, it really disturbs me," Andrews said. "I worry about any child that is going to be in that class again after all of these levels of support that have been given to this employee."

Katherine Kokal is a journalist covering education at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at kkokal@pbpost.com. Help support our work. Subscribe today!

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Will Boca teacher Victor Lopez lose job after chokehold on student?