LABELLE, Fla. — A Hendry County substitute teacher is facing felony charges - accused of helping set up a fight between students, and it was all caught on video inside a classroom at LaBelle Middle School.
In censored video the Hendry County Sheriff’s Office shared you can see a student gets pushed into a desk while others watch. Deputies said this happened Tuesday, inside a LaBelle Middle School classroom - while 20-year-old substitute Ty’Asia Holmes was in charge.
Watch the video from inside the classroom:
They said she let one student call the front desk to have another girl sent to her room, knowing a fight might happen. A student recorded the whole thing - and the Sheriff’s Office said it was a parent who found the video the next day on her daughter’s phone and reported it.
“We were really taken aback by what we saw and what we heard. At one point she tells the students in one of the videos that they need to take it outside or take it off the school campus into the park. You don’t encourage students to fight,” said Captain Harrelle, Hendry County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson.
The Sheriff’s Office said Holmes was arrested for two counts of child neglect and eight counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. She was released on a $35,000 bond.
The school district said the substitute passed background checks and had been teaching on and off for two years. But now, Superintendent Mike Swindle said they’re taking steps to prevent this from ever happening again.
“I know for sure that in the coming years we’re going to continue to add guardians. We have guardians that are administrators and now some teachers. And we’ll be adding hired guardians along with SRO officers, and that’s along with other presence the Hendry Sheriff’s Office has. So we’re continuing to add safety layers to our schools,” said Swindle.
Swindle said Holmes has been fired, banned from all Hendry County schools, and placed on the district’s “do not hire” list. The Sheriff’s Office said the students involved may receive juvenile citations for disrupting school functions.
“One blemish like this is painful to us - we don’t like it - but it happened and we’re gonna deal with it, get better from it, and move forward,” said Swindle.
