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No charges to be filed against Hopwood teacher
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Posted on May 19 2000
The Attorney General’s Office will not file charges against a Hopwood teacher who was arrested for an alleged assault against a student.
After a review of the police report prepared by the Department of Public Safety, the AGO concluded that no law was violated by the teacher, Timothy Phillip Williams.
According to the report, Mr. Williams escorted an unruly 14-year-old student from his classroom by the arm when the student refused to take his seat.
The student admitted that he refused to take his seat, and was walking around the classroom.
Witness statements taken from several other students in the class at the time confirmed that the boy had been moving around the room, talking loudly and disrupting the class, when Mr. Williams asked him to take his seat.
When the boy refused, Mr. Williams took him by the arm, escorted him from the classroom, and asked him to wait in the hallway until he was called back into class.
Instead of waiting in the hallway, the student went to the office, and complained that he had been assaulted by his teacher. Vice-Principal Vincent Dela Cruz then called the police, who arrested Mr. Williams.
The accussed was released from custody approximately 24 hours later.
Asst. Atty. General James J. Benedetto explained that under the CNMI’s Assault and Battery statute, a person commits the offense of assault and battery if the person “unlawfully strikes, beats, wounds, or otherwise does bodily harm” to another.
Based on the police report, Mr. Benedetto said, Mr. Williams’ minimal use of force was reasonable, and not unlawful. “Teachers have to be able to exercise reasonable discipline for the safety of all of their students, including the unruly ones,” Mr. Benedetto said.
“It’s not fair to the others in the class to allow one student to disrupt their lessons. There’s something really wrong with the system when school officials choose to take the side of a disruptive student instead of supporting an experienced teacher. Parents have a right to expect that when they send their children to school, they will have the opportunity to learn in a safe, orderly environment,” Mr. Benedetto said.
