Teacher caught on camera kissing student
Fourth-grade Boca teacher faces simple battery charges.
A 28-year-old Boca Raton fourth-grade teacher was arrested after police say he was caught on video kissing a male student in his classroom this month. The boy and his sister told police this wasn’t the first time either.
Br i a n Kor n b l u t h , who teaches at Somerset Academy, a kindergarten through eighth-grade charter school j us t west o f S out h Di x i e Highway and north of west C a mi n o Re a l , f a c e s t wo counts of simple battery.
On Feb. 8, a teacher at Somerset went to the principal with concerns about K o r n b l u t h w h o m a d e repeated “unusual” requests to move male students into his classroom, according to the police report. After learning of this, the principal readjusted a surveillance camera in Kornbluth’s classroom to be pointed at his desk. Police said there is video surveillance in all classrooms in the school.
The principal reviewed the footage the following day and found footage of Kornbluth with an unidentified boy in an empty classroom before a field trip. During the interaction, the surveillance video shows “Kornbluth briefly kissed the student on the lips,” according to police.
Kornbluth was suspended from the school and the boy’s parents were called. Police were called the following day, according to the report. The Department of Children and Families was alerted to the incident and interviewed the boy who made no mention of the inappropriate behavior. The boy’s age is unknown.
During a second interview with the boy on Monday, he told investigators he was kissed by Kornbluth several times at a home in Boca Raton but made no mention of the classroom incident. It’s unclear at what home this incident happened.
On Wednesday, the student’s sister told police Kornbluth previously gave her and her brother gummy bears and asked for a hug and kiss in return. She told police he kissed both her and her brother on the mouth. The girl’s age is unknown.
Kornbluth admitted to the interaction caught on video but denied any previous inappropriate interaction with students.
Kornbluth has no previous criminal history, according to county records. He has been a teacher in Palm Beach County since 2013.