A Florida student with autism who attacked a teacher’s aide has been sentenced to five years in prison and 15 years probation.
Brendan Depa, 17 at the time of the incident, was described by his adoptive mother as having the emotional maturity of a 6-year-old.
Despite her tearful plea for leniency, the judge stated the video evidence displayed a degree of unprovoked brutality that could not be disregarded.
As the Tampa Free Press reported in April, Depa, who is autistic and who goes 6-foot-6 and weighs 270 pounds, brutally battered teacher Joan Naydich in a hallway at Matanzas High School.
He slammed her to the floor and kicked and punched her, leaving Naydich with five broken ribs, a concussion, and hearing loss.
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His lawyers argued the school district and Naydich deserve blame for the attack, which occurred after Naydich threatened to confiscate Depa’s Nintendo Switch game after he refused to comply with her demand to put it away.
Lawyers said, “The district should be held to account for its failures, which have forever changed the trajectory of this young man’s life.”
Depa was diagnosed with an emotional and behavioral disorder, intermittent explosive disorder, mood disorder, ADHD, and an autism spectrum disorder.
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And he had a history of assaulting staff and students when he got upset. He had recorded incidents of spitting on a student, threatening another, leaving class without permission, and grabbing a female employee. He was also known to smash school property when upset.
Although disciplined for such aggressive acts, Depa was not placed in a restrictive environment, nor was he given, despite being eligible, an individualized education plan or IEP, which would have provided him a board-certified behavior analyst.
The lawyers wrote in court records that “the school did not seem to have any control over B.D., and B.D. was allowed to do whatever he wanted with little to no intervention or consequences.”
“To allow B.D. to continue to escalate only led to the incident where the paraprofessional was harmed, and B.D. was arrested,” they added.
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