Mental health advocate launches defense for 6’6″, 17-year-old boy who attacked teaching assistant

A mental health advocate has launched a furious defense for the 6’6″, 17, boy who attacked and knocked a teaching assistant unconscious after she took his Nintendo Switch from him.

Sue Urban, whose 17-year-old son graduated from Matanzas High School before taking his own life, responded to the incident in which a 17-year-old student with special needs, who weighs 270 pounds, attacked his teaching assistant Tuesday.

Neither the names of the student nor the teaching assistant have been made public.

‘This is not this child’s fault. He is not a threat,’ Urban said in an emotional Facebook Live. ‘This is a mental health issue. This is a problem with our system, it’s broken.

“That post should be removed from the Flagler County Sheriff’s website immediately.”

Urban, who also has a stepson in the same behavior wing as the boy in the video, told DailyMail.com that this special wing is for “kids who are not in the general high school population,” and that his son and boy were ‘school friends’, but in separate classes.

“This is not just a bully,” he told DailyMail.com. ‘People need to be educated about children who have THAT [Exceptional Student Education]. They also need to be educated about impulsive aggressive behaviour, and that most of the time these children do not understand the consequences of the behaviour.’

He also told DailyMail.com that the boy lived in a group home and that his mother did not live in Flagler County, which a faculty member told him at the school board meeting on Wednesday night.

In a Facebook Live, Urban, who became a mental health advocate after her son’s death, continued: “That kid has mental health issues. He is just that, a child.

“That teacher, that paraprofessional, should never have been left alone in a situation where she could have been attacked.”

Urban said she is “fed up with these kids being labeled as a threat.” Many took to social media to call for jail time for the student, who has been charged with a juvenile felony for aggravated assault, and to call the boy an “animal.”

He is currently in the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice and could face up to five years for the attack.

“That child should not have been transported to jail, he should have been transported to a mental health facility,” he said on Facebook Live. ‘Please stop labeling this kid a monster. Yes, his size is an important factor, [but] I didn’t know what I was doing wrong.

‘These kids get extra attention in those classes. They’re given freedom to have these devices, so that when they lose their temper or if they get into that headspace, they can have those Switches or phones or their comfort devices, [so] that they can calm down

However, many disagree with Urban’s position.

Kimberly Rosania told DailyMail.com that ‘one of the reasons I’m talking so much is [their identities have] has not been released. I care more if she is an innocent woman than a predator.

He also claimed in a Facebook post that the school board “stood up for this behavior and this animal.”

‘To claim that your disabilities are and should keep you protected, this is crazy! If he wasn’t stable enough to value human life over a $300.00 video game, why was he between innocent lives to begin with? Why were those lives less valuable than their education? This is a broken system!

Another woman, Karen Puca, called the video “troubling” and said she would “love to hear how MHS leadership is handling such nonsense” as several have reported more fighting this week.

Urban confirmed to DailyMail.com that a lot of fights happen at the school and the leadership of the school needs to improve.

Another, CH Crawley, said: ‘Put him in prison for assault and attempted murder.’

In surveillance footage, released by the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, the burly student can be seen running towards the teacher, who also was not identified, before throwing her across the room, her body flying several feet.

She hits the ground headfirst, knocking her unconscious. The special needs student immediately begins kicking her before kneeling down to punch her head and torso.

Another woman runs up to the student and grabs his arm, but is unable to pull him away from the assistant before several others rush to pull him away. Even after they manage to push him to the ground, she still extends her leg to hit her a few more times.

Five staff members are needed to restrain him and get him away from his body while he was fighting them.

The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office found the woman with “serious injuries” and she was transported to the hospital for treatment.

The teen claimed he “would hit her every time she took the game away from him” and spit at the teacher as officers escorted him away, according to the arrest report.

The student was arrested and taken to the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Center, before being turned over to the Department of Juvenile Justice.

“This could have been a homicide,” said Sheriff Rick Staly WESH 2.

“It is our hope that the victim can recover, both mentally and physically, from this incident,” he said in a statement. ‘Our schools must be a safe place, both for employees and students.’

Flagler Schools Superintendent Cathy Mittelstadt agreed, saying: ‘Creating a safe working and learning environment on our campuses is critical. Violence is never an appropriate reaction.

Matanzas High School said it had ‘no comment’ when contacted for comment.

The Flagler School Board said in a meeting after the event that they had made it a “high priority” to go over the policy to “help with this.”

The teaching assistant has worked within the school district since 2004 and started as an assistant in Matanzas in 2021.