A Miami mom allegedly struck her eighth-grade son’s teacher and spat on the principal’s desk after being criticized for her parenting skills during a meeting about the boy’s issues with other students.
Palmetto Middle School principal Jesus Gonzalez asked Stephanie Armas, 34, to meet him, assistant principal Isamara Berrios and social studies teacher Mayade Ersoff on Feb. 14.
At the meeting, Ersoff told Armas that her son was acting up in class. The mother responded that the boy was likely reacting to being assaulted.
“You need to learn how to raise your child,” Ersoff said.
The teacher’s statement reportedly set off the incensed woman, who “stood up, raised her right arm and struck Ersoff on the left shoulder,” according to the affidavit.
Gonzalez and Berrios intervened and had Ersoff leave the office through a back door, but as she left, Armas “picked up a picture frame from the desk and threw it against the back wall and spat on Gonzalez’s desk,” the affidavit states, according to the Herald.
Armas was arrested the following day and charged with battery. She was reportedly booked into Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in west Miami-Dade and was released after posting a $1,500 bond.
She has pleaded not guilty and is due back in court on Tuesday.
The public school district has declined to comment on the incident, but in a statement said the school community, “including employees and visitors, is reminded to do its part by serving as positive role models for the students of this district and avoid disrupting the safe and positive learning environment that is expected at all of our schools.”
Personally, her actions are not justified, but the teacher shouldn’t have verbally attacked her either. Ersoff basically called her out and insinuated she was a bad parent without knowing the situation of their home environment.
Armas needs to control her anger and the teachers/school staff need better training on how to productively speak to parents.
Armas’ attorney, Frank Quintero, said that the boy had reported to Ersoff, 59, of being “threatened in school”, but that the teacher didn’t report it to Gonzalez until a few days later.
Once the principal found out about the student’s account, he called a meeting with the mother, Quintero said.
Meanwhile, Ersoff emailed Armas about her son’s disruptive behavior in class, but did not mention the assault cited by the student, according to Quintero.
But Ersoff disputed the lawyer’s account, saying she reported the boy’s complaint “right away.”
“I called the assistant principal and said a student had been threatened verbally,” she said, adding that she emailed Armas about her son but omitted his report about being threatened because she felt it was the administrator’s responsibility to inform the parent about it.
Quintero also disputed the account of his client’s alleged actions.
He claimed that after Ersoff’s remarks about Armas’ parenting, the teacher “made a move toward my client” when Gonzalez told her to leave the room.
Armas felt threatened, “so she swung her purse to protect herself,” he said, though the affidavit does not mention a purse.
Ersoff acknowledged in an interview with the paper that she told Armas to “raise her son properly” but denied making any motion toward her.
“I would never in the world think to hit someone, or a parent. It would never cross my mind,” Ersoff told the outlet. “I could have defended myself, but I didn’t.”
She wouldn’t think to hit someone, but Ersoff seems to find it okay to use verbal attacks instead.
This whole situation seems like a case of the school not handling the situation properly and Armas taken the wrong approach to get her point across from frustration.
The article doesn’t mention if the principal and/or asst. principal are “legal U.S. citizens” or not, but it’s not an unreasonable inquiry based upon the details and behaviors noted in the article, which are NOT consistent with traditional, mature, responsible administrators in this country. Notice there’s no mention of the principal or asst. principal immediately chastising and forcing the incompetent and aggressive “teacher” to apologize to the parent for her perceived “hate speech” to the student’s mother. Also, how Leftist and agenda-driven for the “teacher” to intentionally omit the underlying causation of the alleged behavior of the assaulted student by NOT informing the threatened student’s parents of the reported assault, yet instead implied that the victim had acted inappropriately without cause! Liberals hate that Facts Matter and do their damndest to present misinformation which is out-of-context and outright false to support their agenda. (Question: Did the incompetent teacher ALSO email the instigator’s/Attacker’s parents to report the crimes committed by their kids)? Hell No It didn’t (current gender identity of teacher unknown)! Teacher MUST be suspended without pay and SHOULD be FIRED for the unacceptable behavior and lack of professional courtesy and integrity! Lastly, just imagine IF the falsely-arrested mother had been a black female involved in the exact same scenario, with the same treatment from the “teacher” and administration! All Hell would be breaking out with riots, looting, arson, violence and non-stop DEMANDS for the teacher, principal and asst. principal to ALL be immediately FIRED and the kid(s) committing the assault/threatening actions to be investigated and removed from the school, if not arrested! In this situation however, the mistreated parent couldn’t utilize her “black privilege” so commonly abused in our country these days.
Liberal Dolt, you sound like a dolt but not a liberal one. Why are you making such an assinine suggestion that the admins are not legal citizens? Where’s is your brain? What’s with all this leftist agenda? The parent’s behavior reminds me of MTG — you know who I mean. One of the brain dead right-wing Congresspersons that somehow was elected to office. And it’s probably people like you who elected her.
You ask a good question. In some states with the proper visas non-citizens can teach in primary and secondary schools. I suppose the parent might have been asking whether or not a non-citizen here ILLEGALLY was allowed to teach.
As in most states, we welcome those who come here LEGALLY with the proper visas and get green cards AND theirs a need for them. With those here ILLEGALLY most of us Deplorables say they shouldn’t be allowed to work in any capacity until they get their legal status cleared first.
A conservative constitutionalist Deplorable
It is certainly ok to disagree with the way something is handled. And people make poor choices in the heat of the moment, especially when children are involved. Every day. We’ve all done it.
However, I am shocked that people think it is ok to condone or defend the behavior of either side. It’s ok to admit MISTAKES were made. Two wrongs don’t make a right, one set of poor behaviors doesn’t excuse the other.
We are all better than this.
You are exactly right.
Kind of sounds like the Apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree here I don’t give a damn what anybody said to this woman when you go to put in your hands on someone and spitting you’re asking for it. No one should have to tolerate that guy to behavior no matter what. What happened to class in our society
LOL