WEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - A special needs student at Miami Northwestern Senior High has bonded out of jail following his arrest for allegedly punching his teacher.
7News cameras captured Conley Earl Williams as he walked out of the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in West Miami-Dade after posting $2,500 bond, Friday night. The 18-year-old remained quiet.
Williams was charged with battery of a school official.
According to police report, the student “punched [the teacher] in the chest two times and also punched her in the left arm against her will, causing bodily harm to the victim’s left arm.”
Friday morning, Williams appeared before Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Mindy S. Glazer.
“You get re-arrested for anything, you’re going to be locked up in jail until your trial,” said Glazer. “You need to be respectful of your teachers and keep your hands to yourself if you want to have the benefit of getting your education and graduating high school.”
Williams’ mother, Darcheema Pierce, and his grandmother were also in court. Pierce told the judge that the teacher grabbed her son first.
“I don’t even understand why the teacher is not arrested, because the teacher grabbed him first and he responded,” Pierce said.
Glazer responded to Pierce’s comments.
“I wasn’t there,” she said. “You want to speak privately with the attorney to find – let them know if they have a defense in the case and speak privately.”
7News spoke with Pierce following her son’s arrest.
“I don’t believe that,” she said. “Now, I can believe if he gets overwhelmed and grabbed her, I could believe that he grabbed her, but I don’t believe that he punched her.”
Pierce said her son is in special needs classes at Miami Northwestern High School and is a sweet, mild-mannered teenager.
“My son gets straight As and Bs,” she said.
According to Pierce, when Williams came home from school on Thursday after this incident, he presented a different side of the story to his mother.
“The teacher told him, ‘Conley, you ain’t supposed to be in this class, and you didn’t say good morning,’ and he said the teacher grabbed him,” she said.
That’s when, Pierce said, her son reacted.
“He said, ‘I didn’t hit her or nothing, but I did jack her up,'” she said. “I told him, ‘You know that was wrong,’ and I asked them what she was gonna do.”
Pierce said the teacher works with special needs students, including her son, but they’ve had problems with her in the past.
“It’s a lot of things had happened, but this teacher and some of her employee friends been juggin’ at these kids,” she said.
Now, she want this teacher gone from the school and her son back home.
“She do not need to be there,” she said. “He never been to jail. He never stay away from home.”
Miami-Dade County Public Schools released the following statement:
Miami-Dade County Public Schools is aware of an arrest of a Miami Northwestern Senior High School student for their involvement in an altercation with a school employee. This District goes to great lengths to promote our core values such as respect and responsibility and we ask that parents help to reinforce these principles at home.
Williams was suspended by the school for nine days.
7News reached out to the teacher for comment, but she declined.
If he gets arrested again, Williams will get what is referred to as a pretrial alternate, which means he will return to jail with a $2,500 bond, or he will have to wait until his trial date.
Glazer also ordered Williams to stay away from the teacher.
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