SLO County teacher accused of hurting student won’t be charged with child abuse, DA says

An Arroyo Grande middle school teacher who was arrested on suspicion of child abuse will not face criminal charges, according to the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office said in a Wednesday news release.

The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office arrested Sarah Watts, a Mesa Middle School teacher, on campus April 25 after she allegedly hurt a 13-year-old female student during class, the District Attorney’s Office said.

Watts, 42, was accused of forcibly removing a hairbrush “from the hand of a student who was brushing their hair during class and who did not comply with the teacher’s repeated demand that they put it away,” the District Attorney’s Office said. “This interaction allegedly resulted in scratches on two of the student’s fingers.”

Later in the class period, Watts allegedly dropped or threw paper schoolwork towards the same student, the release said, resulting in a paper cut to the student’s temple.

The Sheriff’s Office believed this conduct warranted a charge of felony child abuse resulting in injury, but the District Attorney’s Office disagreed.

“After a comprehensive review of the applicable California law, investigative reports, photographs, and body worn camera footage, the District Attorney’s office has determined there is insufficient evidence to file criminal charges,” the agency said in the release.

Teachers are allowed to use the same amount of physical control as a parent is legally allowed to use in order to keep a class from being unruly under California law, the release said.

The District Attorney’s Office found that Watt’s removal of the hairbrush was the same degree of physical force a parent would be legally allowed to use given the circumstances.

Several students in the classroom were unruly, the agency said, and this specific student’s brushing of her hair was disrupting the teacher’s ability to maintain a proper and appropriate environment conducive to learning.

According to the District Attorney’s Office, the alleged scratches on the student’s fingers were found to be “very minimal” and would be consistent with accidental scratching during the removal of the hairbrush.

The four other students present in the classroom and interviewed by the Sheriff’s Office did not describe seeing the hairbrush incident.

Meanwhile, the papercut allegedly resulted from Watts dropping or throwing paper was found to be “superficial,” the District Attorney’s Office said, and did not warrant filing criminal charges.

The investigation found Watts did not intend the paperwork to hit the student, the release said.

According to the District Attorney’s Office, the 13-year-old girl and other students in the classroom stated that they did not believe Watts intended to injure them during the incident.

There’s not enough evidence to conclude that the injuries, as minimal as they are, were a direct result of Watts’ actions, the agency said.

The student’s father told his daughter at the scene that he thought the scratch near her temple was from a separate incident occurring the day before and that the scratches on her fingers appeared to be “old,” according to video.

Even if Watts’s conduct was not permissible under California law, the agency said, the resulting minor injuries do not appear to have been intentionally caused and do not rise to the level of injury typically treated as criminal conduct.

The District Attorney’s Office said the teacher’s conduct is subject to review by the school and Lucia Mar Unified School District administration and is more appropriately addressed through the administrative process.

Student was daughter of sheriff’s deputy, union says

Watt’s arrest outraged the Lucia Mar Unified Teachers Association, which called the Sheriff’s Office’s actions “egregious” in an email sent to union members shortly after the arrest.

“This specific matter was being handled swiftly and appropriately by district administration prior to law enforcement’s encroachment onto the school campus,” the union wrote in the email. “While many believe this dramatic demonstration of power was exercised only because the accusing student was a child of a sheriff’s deputy, we are horrified by the precedent it sets for our profession nationwide.”

Neither the school district nor the Sheriff’s Office would confirm the student was a child of a deputy.

However, employees at Mesa Middle School told the Tribune the student involved in the incident is the child of a sheriff’s deputy who oversees the school resource officer at the school.

In its email, the Lucia Mar Unified Teachers Association said the incident “clearly highlights a greater need for administrative support for unruly student behaviors in our classrooms.”

“This year has brought unprecedented levels of defiance and disruption,” the email read. “Teachers’ calls for support should not be ignored.”