EL PORTAL, FLA. (WSVN) - A school security monitor has been arrested after he was caught on cellphone video punching a middle school student in the shoulder.
The incident was captured on video at Horace Mann Middle School in El Portal, Thursday morning.
“Oh, no, I couldn’t handle that,” parent James Brannon said. “Myself, if I had walked up and saw that, I would have gotten involved with it, and I would have said, ‘Hold up, you can’t do that kid like that.'”
The video begins with some sort of altercation between 40-year-old Antwan Ruffin, who stands 6 feet, 7 inches tall and weighs 220 pounds, and a seventh-grade student.
“Try me. When the bell rings, you’re in my hallway,” Ruffin said to the student.
Ruffin could be seen shoving the child at first, and then, the boy says something back, but it is not heard in the video. The 40-year-old then continues to yell.
“Do what you’re going to do. Bring his [expletive]. Bring them all. Bring them all,” Ruffin yells. “I ain’t scared of none of them. Bring them all.”
Shortly after Ruffin asks the child if he wants a phone to call, he could be seen hitting the child in his right shoulder.
“It’s concerning,” a parent said. “I’m not going to lie. It’s very concerning. You send your kids to school, and you think they are going to be safe at school. You’re not thinking an adult is going to put his hands on your child.”
Ruffin was later arrested by Miami-Dade Schools Police and charged with child abuse with no great bodily harm and battery. He has since posted bond and was released from jail late Thursday night.
A Miami-Dade County Public Schools spokesperson released a statement on the arrest, which reads, in part, “Miami-Dade County Public Schools is deeply troubled and saddened by the actions of this individual, as they are not representative of our caring and supportive workforce.”
The district added they will be taking all disciplinary actions against Ruffin up to, and including, dismissal.
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