Broward School district fires two teachers for alleged choking, racial comments

The Broward School Board fired a teacher was accused of choking a student and another teacher accused of making racially insensitive comments.

Both Ava Williams, a third-grade teacher at Watkins Elementary in Pembroke Park, and Dagoberto Magana-Velasquez, a math teacher at Miramar High, plan to appeal Tuesday’s decisions to a state judge.

A district complaint against Williams says, in September, a boy slammed his chair against his desk, and the teacher “proceeded to grab [him] around the neck and choke him,” while yelling, “do you hear me!’”

After the boy’s parents complained, Williams denied choking the boy. However, another teacher received a text message saying Williams admitted choking the boy, the report said. The report says there was also a video that shows Williams admitting it to the other teacher.

Williams had previously received a five-day suspension in 2013 from the district and a reprimand from state in 2015 after allegations that she hit several students on the back of the head and twisted another student’s ear.

She could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Magana-Velasquez protested his firing at Tuesday’s meeting, saying students had made up stories about him.

A district complaint alleges that in February, Magana-Velasquez “repeatedly threatened to put tape over students’ mouths for talking.” He also would “disparage his students, including with racially insensitive treatment,” the complaint says.

Students in a second period class reported he wrote a “Red List’ on the board with the names of disruptive students.

One student reported the teacher promised to “tape my mouth up to shut me up. He then proceeds to show me how he’s gonna tape it.”

Another student reported Magana-Velasquez said he would learn Yoruba, the official language of Nigeria, “if you don’t understand it in English.” Magana-Velasquez also told the same student she had mental problems, according to the report.

The district also said Magana-Velasquez improperly docking students’ grades for talking in class, despite being told not to do that.

He has previously received a five-day suspension in 2017 and a-10-day suspension earlier this year for similar issues. A state reprimand from earlier this year alleges he told students they smelled bad because “they were from the hood where there is no hot water” and called special needs students “mental kids.”

Magana-Velasquez unsuccessfully pleaded his case to the School Board.

“When students turn in incomplete or wrong work and refuse to do the work, they go to administrators who get them to write false statements about me,” he said. “What’s been reported is a lie. I’d like to keep my job.”