Teacher punished after dumping student out of desk

Tipping a student over in his chair resulted in a Central High School teacher being suspended without pay and receiving a written reprimand along with a warning not to do it again.

Following the release of a school district investigation made public Thursday, administrators concluded CHS language arts teacher Leonard Budd acted inappropriately when he shook the desk of a sleeping student in February - causing him to fall out of it onto the floor.

According to the investigation report, Budd reported himself to administrators a few minutes after the incident occurred, telling CHS Principal Joe Clifford that he had done "something really stupid."

Budd claimed a student who frequently put his head down in class was unresponsive after Budd called his name twice.

Student witnesses say Budd walked over to the student's desk and tipped it over - dumping the student to the floor - before returning to the day's lesson plan.

During an interview with school administrators, Budd said he didn't intend to knock over the student's desk and instead, it was just to shake it to get the student to wake up. He said he wasn't angry, although he was "struggling with issues." Instead, he said he was passionate.

He also partially blamed his cold medications for his lack of judgment and said a pharmacist technician told him mixing them wasn't good.

"I don't know how he ended up on the floor," Budd said. "I was shocked. That is contrary to my values concerning students. I would never hurt a student."

As to why he went back to teaching instead of helping the student or righting the desk, he again partially blamed the medications, but also said he wanted to remain calm about the situation.

"I have a personality trait, some might call it a bad thing, but it seems to work very well for me," Budd said. "I stay calm. I don't really respond - I think that's why I didn't react in a large way. He didn't appear to be injured. I mean, he was surprised, but there was no protest, so I resumed class."

When the student left the class, Budd said he knew he needed to report what happened. He left the class and went to see Clifford while another adult watched his students.

If he were put in the same situation again, he would make sure he was off medications before returning to school and added he would not be shaking any students' desks again.

In a letter from Interim Superintendent Sonya Jackson, she wrote that Budd would have to take classroom management training before June 30. He also had to apologize to the student and the student's parents.

Budd was not at school Feb. 25 and 26. He returned to his job the following Monday, March 1.