Ex-teacher arrested on negligence charge
April incident happened 2 years after he was fired from previous job.
A former teacher at SouthTech Preparatory Academy charter school allegedly kicked a stool out from under student.
BOYNTON BEACH — A former teacher at the SouthTech Preparatory Academy charter school was arrested this week on a culpable negligence charge after police say he kicked a stool out from under a student in April, causing the student to fall.
Scott Erich Landstrom, 48, was arrested Sunday and booked into the Palm Beach County jail on the misdemeanor charge, four months after the alleged incident occurred.
The incident at the Boynton Beach middle school happened
two years after Landstrom was fired from his job as a physics teacher at Suncoast High School, where parents had complained that he made inappropriate comments in class, including using the word “whore” during a lesson.
After a student’s family reported the April 30 incident to Boynton Beach police, Landstrom admitted that he had become angry when a student interrupted him while he was disciplining students in
his middle school science class, according to an arrest report.
Landstrom said he kicked a barstool chair that a student was sitting on, causing the student to fall to the floor, police say. He said he only meant to “tap” the stool and did not intend for the student to fall, according to an arrest report.
The student fell on the tile floor but was not seriously injured, police said.
Officers originally concluded they had probable cause to arrest Landstrom on child abuse charges and issued a warrant for his arrest, records show. But court records indicate Landstrom was instead arrested on a lesser charge of culpable negligence, a second-degree misdemeanor.
Landstrom was released from jail without posting bail a few hours after being booked. He did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Jim Kidd, superintendent of SouthTech Preparatory and its sister school, SouthTech Academy high school, said that Landstrom was placed on paid administrative leave after the incident and resigned the following month.
Kidd said he was unfamiliar with the details of the incident and could not comment further on the case.