The recommendation, issued Friday, follows an incident in February 2019 when Blucher Menelas, a chemistry teacher at Dr. Michael M. Koop Senior High School, visited his son’s classroom at Madie Ives K-8 Preparatory Academy. Menelas’ visit was due to an email his son’s teacher Patricia Costa sent Menelas regarding the child’s behavior in class.
According to the ruling, Menelas apologized for his son’s behavior in a reply to Costa, and requested to observe him in class. After Costa agreed to allow Menelas to observe, he addressed the class and apologized for his son’s disruptive behavior and told students that his son “had long been an embarrassment,” to him.
While addressing the class, the ruling states that Menelas directed his son “to stand before the class, remove—and hand over—his belt, and drop his pants,” to which hi son, referred to in court documents as T.M., complied.
Menelas then spanked his son with the belt, “one strike per number, for a total of ten blows,” in front of Costa’s entire class, the ruling said.
After the class, Costa reported the incident to the school’s principal, which prompted the school board to allege that Menelas’ violated a district police against corporal punishment.
However, in Friday’s ruling, Administrative Judge John G. Van Laningham wrote “that the Miami-Dade County School Board enter a final order exonerating Blucher Menelas of all charges brought against him in this proceeding, reinstating Menelas to his pre-dismissal position, and awarding Menelas back salary as required under section 1012.33(6)(a).”
Laningham’s ruling follows a November 2019 vote by the school board to suspend Menelas.
The ruling states that though there is no dispute that Menelas’ son was injured as a result of the spanking, “Menelas testified that that he had no intention of physically harming his son, and this testimony, being consistent with the objective facts and otherwise credible, is credited as truthful.”
“If Menelas had spanked his son in the same manner in the aisle of a Walmart store, the district would not have jurisdiction to discipline him for such conduct—not, at least, under the charges that have been brought against Menelas in this case,” Laningham wrote. “If Menelas were, e.g., an accountant instead of a teacher, the district likewise would be without authority to impose discipline for violating the corporal punishment policy. Yet, there is no basis in the record for the undersigned to make a finding that Menelas would have acted any differently under the circumstances if he were an accountant.”
According to Fox 13 News, Laningham’s ruling is a recommendation and must go back to the school board for a final decision.
Newsweek reached out to the Miami-Dade County School Board for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
