School leaders fire Boca Raton teacher who put student in chokehold, hit kids with yardstick

In a move that runs contrary to advice from a judge who weighed in on the case in September, Palm Beach County's school board voted last week to fire Boca Raton Middle School teacher Victor Lopez after he put at least one student in a chokehold during class.

Students also said Lopez called them nicknames like "Knucklehead," "Shaniqua" and "Oompa Loompa" in math class. He'd previously been suspended by the district in 2022 for hitting a student with a yardstick.

Lopez, who was employed by the school district for nearly 20 years, will be suspended without pay for 15 days. His termination, decided during a board meeting Wednesday, Dec. 13, will be effective after the suspension is complete in late January.

School board members said Lopez's history of discipline showed he'd gotten too many chances.

"When I read about all the things that were happening in that classroom, as a former teacher, it really disturbs me," board member Marcia Andrews said at a Dec. 6 hearing on Lopez's case. "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."

Lopez was fired in September 2022 and appealed the school board's decision.

He and his attorney presented evidence at a hearing in June to administrative law Judge June McKinney, who then issued a recommendation in September that Lopez should not have been fired. McKinney said the teacher instead 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 his job should not be terminated.

Lopez can now contest the district's decision before judges at the Fourth District Court of Appeal. If he chooses to, he'd have McKinney's opinion to back up his case for punishment short of termination.

Boca Raton teacher suspended once before at another middle school

The first reports of inappropriate behavior by Lopez came just months after he was suspended for 10 days in February 2022 for striking a student with a yardstick at Loggers' Run Middle. The incident was caught on video.

He was moved to Boca Middle as a result of that investigation. While school police sought battery charges for the yardstick incidents, the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office declined to prosecute him.

In May 2022, he again 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 either 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 students' allegations.

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.

Judge favored second suspension for teacher

This is the second time this year that the district has fired a teacher, only to have the teacher appeal the action to a judge who instead recommended that the teacher keep their job.

In August, a judge said that K.E. Cunningham/Canal Point Elementary teacher Dianne Baumann should have been suspended, not fired, after she told a student "f*** you" and told another student he was "stupid." However administrative law judges' recommendations are not binding, and the school board ultimately voted to terminate Baumann in October.

At issue in Lopez's case was whether progressive discipline should run its course and lead to his firing.

"Termination is not extreme," district assistant general counsel Jean Marie Middleton said at a Dec. 6 hearing on Lopez's case. "It is the next level of progressive discipline. He already had a suspension."

But Lopez's attorney, Nathan Soowal, said at the hearing that the school board should defer 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."

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: Florida teacher fired for chokehold, hitting students with yardstick