The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Former teacher had ‘no intent to harm any students’ with chokeholds
A former Norwalk math coach did not mean to hurt her students when police say she demonstrated chokeholds to her fifth-grade students, causing one boy to pass out, according to her lawyer.
Stefanie Sanabria, 50, was arraigned in state Superior Court in Stamford Friday morning for multiple charges related to the incident. Her case was continued to May 10.
Her lawyer, Philip Russell, said his client was playing with the students when the incident occurred.
“They were asked what they wanted to do, they did what they wanted to do,” he said outside the courthouse Friday morning. “And within minutes of when this boy is alleged to have lost consciousness, he was playing on a jumping castle with his friends. He had refused any medical care, and it was almost a trivial event in the minds of many people.”
“There was no intent to harm any students here,” he continued. “This was something that might’ve been improvident; it might’ve been something that every teacher might not have done.”
“Our hope is that as time progresses, the evidence will come out and people will come to their senses and the case will resolve,” he added.
The Danbury resident resigned from her position at Brookside Elementary School shortly after her March 3 arrest, according to Norwalk Public Schools spokesperson Emily Morgan.
In her arrest warrant, police said Sanabria told the assistant principal she displayed a “lack of judgment” when she showed the class the chokeholds and caused one student to pass out on Feb. 24. The school resource officer tried to speak to Sanabria
about what happened on the day of the incident, but was denied by the teachers union president, according to the warrant.
Sanabria was charged with second-degree strangulation, first-degree reckless endangerment and risk of injury to a minor. She was released after posting a $20,000 bond, judicial records show.
Russell called Sanabria
a “good teacher” with 20 years of experience, including awards, distinctions and positive reviews. Norwalk Public Schools hired Sanabria as a math coach in August 2021, according to Morgan.
“She had a good career in Norwalk,” Russell said. “And it’s just so troubling the way that this fell on her.”
“This is a teacher with a reputation and a comfort level that she’s earned over many years,” he continued.
“Hindsight’s 20/20, but in these hypersensitive times, it’s hard for anybody to know what’s going to snowball,” Russell said, noting a case where his office represented a teacher who got between two fighting students.
“Sadly, there are many teachers who will not touch a student no matter what,” he continued. “There’s a lot of frantic decision-making in our schools, and it comes from a good intention, and it comes from a good place, but it can very often lead to a scary result.”
According to Sanabria’s arrest warrant, the assistant principal told police that “since it was Friday, she (Sanabria) wanted to do something fun with her math group,” the warrant said. Sanabria explained to the class that she was considering offering martial arts classes after school and told them she was trained in jiu-jitsu, according to the warrant.
The warrant said Sanabria demonstrated a few moves to the class, one of them being a chokehold.
When Sanabria demonstrated the chokehold, a few students volunteered to participate. According to the assistant principal’s statement to police, Sanabria said she told the students that if they felt some pressure, to tap her elbow and she would release them.
Sanabria placed two students, ages 10 and 11, in the hold before demonstrating the move on a third student, an 11-yearold boy, who passed out, the warrant said.
The boy told police “he wanted to go longer than the other students and everything went back,” according to the warrant.