Robert Ripley, the former Matanzas High School football coach and current Wadsworth Elementary School teacher, tendered his resignation rather than face getting fired over an incident in which two investigations found him to have caused injury or used excessive force while disciplining an 8-year-old special education student.
The district is allowing Ripley to remain on the payroll until May 29, the date his resignation is effective. He has been on paid administrative leave since the Feb. 19 incident. Human Resources Director Jewel Johnson recommended he be fired on March 16. Anna Crawford, the principal at Wadsworth Elementary, recommended that he be fired on March 31.
Ripley is paid $54,335. After he was suspended with pay, he also received $938 as his share for being part of an A-Plus school. And he received $2,500 for having been rated “exceptional” the previous year.
It was the second allegation of serious misconduct against Ripley in the last four years. In 2016, when he was the head football coach at Matanzas, Ripley was the subject two district investigations into allegations that he had bullied and demeaned one of his student athletes, and exhibited an “unacceptable” coaching style toward the team even after he had received a written reprimand over the “severity” of the earlier issue from then-Matanzas Principal Earl Johnson. But the district only issued a “letter of counseling” after the second investigation.
He was the school’s winningest coach when he stepped down the following year–and remained Matanzas’s dean of discipline. He stayed at Matanzas until the fall of 2018, when he took the teaching job at Wadsworth. That school year, his evaluation noted that he needed improvement with regards to interactions with students. Nevertheless, he was rated effective enough to earn the bonus.
The Feb. 19 incident involved a student who left the cafeteria without permission. Ripley, a rather large and strong man, twice pushed the child to the ground in footage captured on surveillance video.
“For nearly 35 minutes of time Mr. Ripley engaged with the student in an attempt to, what should have been, deescalate him,” Johnson concluded. “The sheer disparity between the size of the student in comparison to the teacher is problematic considering the events that transpired. But throughout the episode the teacher repeatedly showed impatience as the student was snatched from the floor, carried down a hallway, shoved into the De-escalation Room, and pushed into the calming room. The actions of Mr. Ripley on February 19, 2020 are not in accordance with school board policy.”
Johnson concluded that Ripley should “have no unsupervised contact with any child at this time,” that he should complete an anger management course, and “not work in any capacity with students regardless of age, disability or setting” until further notice.
The Department of Children and Families investigated last February’s incident and “verified findings of physical injury” to the child, according to DCF’s conclusions, raising concerns about Ripley continuing to work as a “behavior interventionist” for students in grades K-3. The injured child was not one of his students.
Recommending his firing on march 31, Crawford determined that Ripley’s actions against the 8 year old were “excessive” and “amount to misconduct in office.”
Ripley defended his actions when Johnson interviewed him on March 2. He said the school was “understaffed” that day, and described the student this way: “Multiple times he kicked, in the hallway, down the hallway. Once we were into the de-escalation room he was punching.” He said the student had “eloped” twice that day. “I know his tendencies. I used a CPI technique to get him from the hallway to the Beach.” Schools follow the Crisis Prevention Institute’s de-escalation protocols.
Crawford concluded that Ripley neither documented the restraint and transport methods he used toward the student nor used recognized CPI techniques. “The Beach is an area where we get you squared away, it is a de-escalation room. This student has a history of violence toward staff. He chipped the tooth of Mrs. Burns. [The student] has been suspended 3 times (20 referrals). He has kicked and punched. There have been holes he put in the wall and he has kicked the wall. He is violent when escalated.”
In his resignation letter, Ripley said he was completing his 18th year as a teacher, 17 of them in Flagler, along with other roles, including coaching. “It is in these experiences that I’ve shown growth and brought a unique passion to my hometown schools and county,” he wrote. It is also where I have learned many things about myself. It is also where I have failed.” He did not elaborate. “The successful students that I was able to mentor, teach, and coach will always carry some of these lessons we have learned together.”
He said he intended to get back into coaching. “I ventured too far away from my passion and my love.” he wrote, describing his work at Wadsworth as “the hardest job I have ever had.”
School Board Attorney Kristy Gavin said it isn;t clear what happened between the time when Crawford and Johnson recommended Ripley’s firing in March and the setting of the May 8 pre-termination hearing to which Ripley was entitled, according to rules set forth in the district’s contract with the teachers’ union. No firing could take place before that meeting (“basically a last bite at the apple, for lack of a better word, before action is taken,” Gavin said), following which the superintendent recommends the firing to the school board, which ratifies the decision at a meeting. That decision would have taken place at Tuesday’s meeting.
“The day he was to be having this pre-termination hearing, he sent the letter of resignation,” Gavin said, “and superintendent [Jim] Tager chose to accept his resignation in lieu of attending the meeting, and moving forward.” Gavin said she was “not really quite sure what happened during the month of April.”
In essence, rather than have a firing on his record, Ripley was allowed to resign, to set his own resignation date, which is not effective until May 29, normally the end of the year for instructional staff anyway, and to continue on the payroll until then. Gavin said that since he announced his resignation, he’s been drawing down his leave time, which would have been owed to him anyway, rather than getting straight pay.
The handling of the case of Ripley, a successful coach whom the district had already handled gingerly through a series of complaints in 2016, was sharply different from that of Jeffrey Paffumi, another special education teacher who was similarly caught on video using force toward a 14-year-old student. Paffumi was captured visibly pushing the student out of a Buddy Taylor Middle School classroom and into a hallway just weeks before the Ripley incident. Paffumi was charged with a misdemeanor the next day. The State Attorney’s Office followed up with an information, or an official charge, on March 6, by which time Paffumi–who, like Ripley, had a temperamental history with the district–had already been fired.
The investigations and recommendations to fire Ripley were equally swift, at least at the level of school and district administrators. Then it inexplicably stalled. The cases were also treated differently by law enforcement.
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office initially investigated the Ripley incident with the 8 year old boy. But that investigation downplayed Ripley’s interactions with the child, placing certain burdens on the child’s mother, who had told the deputy that her child was disabled, and who wanted to know about “battery on a disabled person charges.”
“I asked how he was disabled, as per the video I watched [the student] was fully mobile, running from staff, flailing his body around, and kicking at Mr. Ripley during the 30 minutes or so that I watched,” the deputy reported in the incident report, clearly not understanding the meaning of the word “disability” in the context of exceptional student education. The child’s mother told the deputy that her son’s disability was fully documented by the district–how else would he have been an ESE student?–and said she would provide documentation. “ Mrs. Jackson has not provided information about [her son’s] disability,” the deputy reported five days after the incident, though that documentation was at the school, “nor has she provided a statement about the incident on her son’s behalf.”
The incident report concluded: “It should be noted that the injuries reported by [the boy] and his parents are not consistent with what I observed watching surveillance video footage. This charging affidavit for Battery will be sent to the State Attorney’s Office for further review.”
The charging affidavit was presumably sent to the State Attorney’s Office with a misdemeanor battery charge listed–not a felony battery charge, as would be the case when the alleged victim is disabled. No charges have been filed from the State Attorney’s Office.
Captain says
WOW THAT’S SOME JUSTICE FOR THAT LITTLE BOY.SCHOOL BOARD WAKE UP!!!!!
Steve says
Sounds to me like you are rewarding a bully Teacher. I dont know him . He may be ok just doesnt sound good. Par for the course in these parts.
CB from PC says
Typical Boilerplate no contact etc. response by Johnson.
The real problem is that what is tolerated at home is not acceptable in schools or other public places.
The Deputy documented that the student was basically out of control, and certainly mobile during the 30 minutes of watched video.
A couple possible solutions are that the parent should consider home schooling or paying for the student to receive the education in a school specifically handling whatever type of “disability” has been specified in the diagnosis.
Special Ed says
Special ed kids should not be allowed in schools for non-special kids. You know the non special ones that will be covering the costs one day for the “special” ones.They are nothing but a distraction to the learning process.
Brandon D Cross says
I am sure what I have to say will be misunderstood and perhaps misinterpreted.
I am 68 years old… looking back as a child … again… long ago…Corporal punishment was used in public schools, even more so in private schools.
Being truthful, I have a couple of occurrences were I received a few slaps from a ruler on my wrist due to infractions and was justified.
Yet, actually that was the easy part! The REAL Discipline occurred when I got home and had to give my father the note from my teacher explaining what I did that caused school discipline. The punishment I received at home was FAR Greater.
Because of this I learned that it was in my best physical interest to not be a disruption in school.
The point I am trying to convey is the basic issues of self and family discipline have gone astray.
I was in law enforcement for 25 years. I witnessed this decay of social values over the years, and how this has impacted our children.
Again… just my opinion.. growing up I was taught education and hard work was key to success. What I see in current generations is entitlement…
I blame this on their parents who did not convey nor enforce basic social mores .
I guess none of what I have said is “Politically Correct ” yet I believe socially true.
Weldon B. Ryan says
These events happened too often which caused us to home school our kids. Unwarrented emotionally distressing punishments to my child and zero tolerance toward my son numerous time made us pull them out. I see things haven’t changed.
C’mon man says
Sometimes a good ass whipping solves a problem, sometimes It doesn’t. Sorry the coach got fired but maybe the parents should have taught their entitled kid better.
FYI just a convo starter.
Yellowstone says
Whoa, whoa! Read the first paragraph. Since when does anyone (especially someone who looks like he is six feet plus tall and weighs over 250 pounds) knock down an eight year old SPECIAL ED student around?
What the heck are you guys thinking . . . ? That in itself is a criminal offense.
Perhaps as you read the papers you’ll see this sort of child brutality exists in Flagler County and it has to be stopped. This is not the Middle Ages.
Tom says
UNBELIEVABLE!!! That’s all I can say. Ripley has been forced to resign 3 THREE times. 1st time from FPC years ago for a similar offense being rough with a disabled student. 2nd time from Matanzas for bullying, and now this!! Not too many people know about the first offense but I’ve got insider information from several school board employees although it has been swept under the rug. I’m guessing Ripley has some dirt on his bosses that he keep getting away with murder. He needs to find a job away from children as he has anger issues and is clearly a bully. I know him personally so I’m speaking from experience. It’s blows me away when I see morons defending this guy and blaming a poor 8 year old disabled boy and his parents. Mr Ripley you got away with it again but believe me karma is real and you will get what you deserve one day.
Shelbyjean says
I fully “AGREE” with you Come On Man! I tried my teachers a couple times back in the day, and after I got home My daddy tore My Ass Up! I learned not to act like that anymore “Real Quick”. I believe this kid had it commin, and it’s his parents fault for ever letting him get that way to begin with!! 🙄😡😠🤫😵😡🤬🤬🤬
Willy Boy says
Understood. Agree. But we are dinosaurs.
pinelakes79 says
Now that the child has been home for 8 weeks, I am sure the parents are understanding what went on at school. Behavior issues, even for ESE, are nurtured at home. I am still wondering where Administration was during this episode. Why wasn’t the teacher helped when he used his radio??
Shark says
Ripley – believe it or not
Stephen Furnari says
Wow, “Special Ed” is a true thought leader on the education of students with disabilities. FlaglerLive editors, please seek out this person to see what other inspirational policy opinions they have. Certainly meritorious of it’s very own story.
Mary Fusco says
Mr. Cross, it may not be “politically correct” but what you say is 100% true. I’m 73 and would never have considered “acting up” in school as the punishment would have been worse. LOL. I raised my children the same way. Once in a while I would get a call from a teacher that one of mine had misbehaved. Of course they would deny it and say that the teacher was lying. My response would be that it is amazing that this teacher took the time out of their night to call me and lie about you. That usually shut the discussion down and they were told to apologize the next day. My answer was always that you are in school to learn. Not confront or become friends with the teacher. One of my daughters graduated from Flagler College with a 4.0 in education. Her comment always was “meet the crazy parents” and now understands what is wrong with the kid. She quit after a middle school boy threatened to grab her in the parking lot and kill her. BTW, this was in St. Augustine, not Chicago or NY! Unfortunately, teachers today have an enormous job because parents refuse to do their job.
Cyd says
Amen!!!
Temper Temper says
Have no fear Coach ! This school board is driving the clown car. Apply again and they will hire you back.
Career change says
How much does this dude make? WTF.
Jim says
Actually Ripley is more like 5’6″ (little man “Napoleon”complex) and pushing 300 lbs so he’s actually wider than he is tall. That;s still no excuse to push around a poor little 8 year old with disabilities. Takes a real man to do that.
Tom says
The sad truth is that Ripley probably will get rehired in the county and will go on to abuse and bully more children just as he’s done countless times in the past.
TR says
I believe the problem with the kids of today started when the rights of parents were taken away that they can not whack their child on the butt every now and then. Hey instead of punishing the kids for doing wrong, lets give them all trophy’s for showing up. How’s that working out today? NOT. Were the actions by this teacher/coach justified, probably not. But kids know how to push adults buttons knowing they will not be held accountable and neither will the parents. Just look at how many times we red about young teenagers being out at 1 or 3am in the morning causing trouble. It’s easy to have a kid, it’s another thing to know how to raise them. Just my 2 cents.
Ronnie says
@ CB from PC and Pinelakes 79- You are absolutely correct! Behavior that is allowed at home because parents take the easy way out and cave, is not tolerated at school. Parents are setting their kids up for failure when they allow entitlements to overcome order and responsibility. I hear many teachers saying that parents are sick of this virtual learning because they can’t get their kid to do any schoolwork.
James Manfre says
I had some idea of Coach Ripley’s issues, but did not understand the depth of his problems until I mentioned his firing to my son a 2007 graduate of FPC. He told me a story that sent shivers through me. When he was on the FPC varsity baseball team he was harassed by Coach Ripley because he was too smart. My son graduated second in his class, received a full academic scholarship to Georgia Tech, was on Forbes list of 30 under 30 and has his own startup company. One day at practice Ripley asked my son to pitch to him. My son struck him out repeatedly and Ripley became enraged. Ripley then ordered my son into the batting cage and repeatedly through fastballs at his head. My son not wanting to make waves never told me or my wife. How many other instance of this behavior are out there and were ignored by the school district and have left scars on our students? It is never proper for a teacher, coach or law enforcement using abusive language or physical force unless in self defense now or in the past.
Denise says
You said it well!!!!!!! If we got in trouble at school … It was NOT the teachers fault (like it seems to be today… Teachers picking in my Johnny)… We got in trouble at home as well!!! Our parents MADE us own our bad behavior … Where are the PARENTS? You continue to blame other people instead of correcting YOUR PARENTING=CONTINUED WORSENING BEHAVIOR!!! Parents need to discipline at home!!!!!!!!! STOP BEING LAZY, BLAME PLACING PARENTS. TAKE CARE OF YOUR OWN!!!!!!!
FPC alum says
That is not new. I played FPC baseball in the early 90s. One coach threw at my head because I squared around too early to bunt off him. I could excuse that one because I had a helmet and his reasoning was that’s what pitchers do. The other coach threw at my head helmetless during BP. He wasn’t throwing strikes and I said, “Come on coach. Throw it over the plate.” He threw at my head, stormed off the mound saying, “I am sick of you and (name witheld) bitching and moaning.”
Chris says
Brave of you to come out Mr Manfre….it’s about time Ripley get exposed for what he is. My son played football at Matanzas HS and was repeatedly insulted, belittled, and ridiculed in front of the whole team. It effected my son so much he had to get counseling after he transferred out. His bullying techniques were no secret and were often covered up by his staff as Ripley can be intimidating. Behind his back most if the players resented Ripley to the point one player started a petition to have Ripley fired. 15 players signed to petition including many of his starters and favorites as he did have favorites. I had enough after one day my son came home in tears and so shaken he could not even return to the team. Ripley had his select favorites and then had the rest. Ripley has no business working around disabled or special needs children let alone any children. For those of you who defend this guy I can only assume you’re either his family or one of his buds because there’s no defending this animal. Takes a real man to beat up an 8 year old disabled boy…Sad.
Cheryl says
Robert Ripley is most certainly not 5’6”. Nor does he have a Napoleon complex. Take it from a woman who has seen that first hand in men. Oy.
Karen P says
To all of the people condoning this man’s forceful actions towards a child…and to those who think roughing up children and spanking them into submission is the answer: these kids who are beaten, spanked, humiliated, shamed, etc to “keep them straight” turn out to be what we are currently seeing as the generation of depressed, overweight, undereducated, suicidal, angry, non-thinking and self-righteous individuals who have completely failed our Earth and continue to perpetute hate, anger and violence. Only a few will heal themselves from their abusive childhoods. Even the obedient ones have internal struggles and dependencies. Stop beating on your kids people, it’s archaic. Read a book about it if you can peel yourselves away from the likes of Tiger King.
Wayne says
Even as Mr. Ripley attended Bunnell Elementery School as a child he had behavioral issues. I remember other students mocking him on the playground and laughing as he would angerly chase them. Maybe this is why he acts the way he does. He was picked on as a child for being over weight and like a semi truck. ernt ernt!
Brandon Cross says
After reading your response I am a bit confused…are you saying that making students… any age…made responsible for their actions, should not be corrected for their actions?
Hey… I have many reasons and actually can show that officers should use necessary force to anyone… including juveniles should obey lawful orders…to ensure compliance
Actually… What is your concern? More appropriate what is your answer to the problem? Please respond because I will personally work to make it happen.
Brandon Cross says
I totally agree.
Florida ranks extremely low on teacher salaries.
Due to this far to many of our “homegrown “ graduates move to other states.
Local says
If you don’t like the “middle ages” we live in here in Flagler County, then why don’t you just leave. Not saying he was right for what he did to the child but there has to be some discipline. If the child can’t behave at school then he should just be removed!
I'm jus sayin says
Being the parent of a child who was mistreated by this man, (not a man in the true sense of the word, because no “man” would harm a child no matter what the circumstance, especially a man who was entrusted to guide, correct appropriately, care for, teach, etc especially a disabled child) I am appalled a the lack of fortitude by the district to make him be accountable for how he treats our children and young people. RETURN TO COACHING? IS HE SERIOUS? He should have his teaching license revoked by the State, but those powers will never hear of his misconduct, he will not be charged with any crime even though he should be going to jail for his actions against this child-let alone all the others he’s mistreated, and now he’s been allowed once again to skate by with no sanctions. Le’s not forget the second in command in the district is the same principal at Matanzas that let his abuse of students go and even allowed him to remain a dean knowing full well what Ripley was really doing and how he treated athletes and students. Wasn’t there an audio recording of him ranting about God knows what and wasn’t it full of profanity and anger towards students? Doesn’t the district have that audio? They’ve been covering for Ripley for 17 years, don’t think it’s gonna stop anytime soon…
Wonder why he left St. Augustine High after only 1 year? Bet it was same thing….
Jim says
Way too much for what he’s worth, that’d for sure!!!