Attack on teachers aide sparks debate

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A brutal attack on a paraprofessional by a student that was caught on video inside a Flagler County high school has ignited a debate over what punishment a student with special needs should receive for the attack.

The Attack
A camera inside Flagler County's Matanzas High School captured the moment 17-year-old Brendan Depa attacked the paraprofessional, knocking her unconscious. He then began kicking at the teacher's aide before kneeling on top of her and repeatedly punching her in the head.

The trigger for the attack was talk of taking away Depa's Nintendo Switch.

In a news release the day after the Feb. 21, 2023 attack, the Flagler County Sheriff's Office said it was "absolutely horrendous" and "unprovoked."

Not mentioned in the release was that Brendan was in the special needs program. He was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, sensory disorder, behavior/impulse control disorder, mood disorder, and ADHD.

The Aftermath
The video sparked outrage, calls for justice, and ignited a national debate. Brendan Depa, now 18 years old, faces 30 years in prison.

Body cam footage from the Flagler County Sheriff's Office shows Brendan's arrest.

In one of the videos, Brendan asks if he is going to jail and for how long," the deputy said, “I do not know. I do not make that determination.”

Brendan has been incarcerated for nearly a year, charged with aggravated battery of an education employee.

A Mother's Story
Brendan's story began in Hillsborough County.

"We were his foster parents. He came to us when he was five months old," Leanne Depa, Brendan's mother, said.

Depa contacted the I-Team, concerned about how her adopted son was being portrayed.

“He would read the dictionary from a young age, and his vocabulary is much better than mine. And to listen to him talk and everything, when you listen to him, you think that he should know better. But it’s that social, emotional age where he struggles," Depa said.

She continued, "He’s at like a four to six-year-old level for not understanding how to make friends, not understanding give and take and things like that, and getting really fixated on something.”

Depa said she was told to call the police any time Brendan became aggressive and to have a paper trail to try and get him residential care.

"When we would do that, the police officers recognized the autism, and they recognized it was a mental health issue, and they would Baker Act. We had a couple of times where they didn’t, and they charged him," Depa said. "Our whole goal was to get him into a residential place to try to do the med wash and to try to get him to where he could learn more coping skills, and so the only place we could find was in South Carolina."

After that program, Florida's Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD) helped find an intensive behavioral group home. But with long wait lists and limited openings, the closest option was in Flagler County. Depa said she had concerns from the beginning.

"I have home-schooled him because I felt like he didn’t do well around large numbers of kids and in a busy environment, and so I expressed my concerns to the group home, and I was told all their clients go to public school. And that it would be okay," Depa said. "The group home was aware that electronics was a trigger for him. And in his school IEP, we stated that. We told the school that it could result in him acting out physically."

The School
Two days after the attack, Depa met with Matanzas High School, according to a report.

The report said, "Brendan became verbally aggressive toward Ms. Joan when they were discussing Brendan using his Switch." He then "began calling her names and cursing at her," and "when she attempted to leave the room, he got in her face and spit in her face."

Brendan then "pushed the para down, and she fell unconscious," and he "threatened to kill her," according to the school's report.

While the school wrote that Brendan's IEP was being followed as written, Brendan, his mother, and the group home said in the report "that the IEP was not being followed because of the addition of the technology that was not on the IEP. It was something added per Brendan's request."

The report said, "The team determined that the behaviors were a manifestation of his disability."

The Victim
The I-Team contacted the victim, Joan Naydich, who suffered broken ribs and a concussion.

Flagler County Schools confirmed she is currently on personal leave and has been with the school system for 20 years. She has worked as a paraprofessional for three years.

In texts, Nayduch told the I-Team, "What happened at Manatzas High School on Feb. 21... is on video for the world to see."

"I hope the court shows no mercy on January 31," Nayduch said, adding, "He is not the victim in my situation. Mrs. Depa needs to stop blaming everyone for her failure as a parent."

Over the next two weeks, the I-Team followed up with Naydich multiple times to see if she would agree to an interview. She stopped responding.

The Response
A substitute teacher for the school district, however, agreed to meet with the I-Team.

“This could be a death sentence for Brendan," Gene Lopes said.

He has 30 years of experience working in special education.

“Getting people to fill these roles is difficult," Lopes said.

The first time he ever saw Brendan was in the school surveillance video released from the attack.

“I was horrified," Lopes said. "I had that same gut reaction as everyone else. You know, how could this kid do this? I didn't take anything else into consideration except for what I saw in that video."

Then he read an article written by Brendan's mother.

“It came into my head that, wow. Brendan is the kids I’ve been teaching my whole life. How did I not realize? How did I have that same visceral anger? As people who haven’t dealt with this. I was kind of a little bit embarrassed about it. And I immediately reached out to see if I could find his mother, to see if I could do anything," Lopes told the I-Team.

Being in a state prison facility would not solve any problems, would not make society safer, and the things we’re able to do for him now would be pulled away from him," Lopes said.

In a hearing last summer, two medical experts disagreed over Brendan's competency. The judge ultimately ruled that he was competent.

Brendan has pleaded no contest to the charges.

Autism Justice Center
When we don’t have mechanisms in place like appropriate diversion programs to do rehabilitation rather than incarceration. When we resort to tools like solitary confinement for people who are already in the penal system, we are making things worse," the Director of the Autism Justice Center, Carlean Ponder, told the I-Team.

The Autism Justice Center is a new initiative from the Autism Society of America that is based in Maryland.

“We are specifically looking at the intersection of the criminal legal system and autism," Ponder said.

The nonprofit reports that by 21 years old, nearly 5% of youth with autism had been arrested.

It’s really unfair to say — we know that you have all of these disabilities when there’s a record of your treatment, your history, and perhaps you’ve even been living in a particular facility that is geared for people with disabilities, but now because you have attacked someone or because you have crossed the line, we are going to throw all of that information that we know about you out the door," Ponder said.

Depa said the problem is bigger than her son's.

“We’ve got a growing segment of our population that has autism. And we’ve got a large section of the population that has mental health issues. And what we’re doing right now is not working," Depa said. "Not just holding accountable the person with mental illness, but the systems that are failing them.”