A substitute teacher at a Florida middle school let a student try her vape pen in class and told the principal she was “just trying to fit in,” according to authorities.
The substitute teacher, who is 50 years old, no longer works for the Lake County School District, a spokeswoman for the district told McClatchy News. The woman, who was filling in at Eustis Middle School on May 2, let a seventh-grade student “take a hit” off her vape pen after the student allegedly spoke in class about wanting to try one, according to an arrest affidavit from the Eustis Police Department.
She then told the student not to tell anyone else because she “didn’t want to get in trouble,” the affidavit says. The school’s principal later confronted her about what happened, and she told him that she was “just trying to fit in,” according to the affidavit.
“You can’t do this. You just can’t do it. I mean, this should be common sense,” said Eustis Police Chief Craig Capri. “She has a responsibility to that classroom to protect kids, not abuse them.”
Capri said the reason she gave for doing it was surprising to him.
“We contacted her. She immediately, post-Miranda, confessed to doing it,” Capri said. “Her response was she just wanted to fit in. I don’t get it. What is there to fit in? You’re there to teach a class, not to fit in.”
Jennifer Hunter, who has an eighth grader at Eustis Middle School said she feels the same.
“They don’t need to fit in with the kids at all,” she said. “They need to be more parent-like than fitting in with the kids.”
Officers with the Eustis Police Department arrested her just before 6 p.m. on May 5, according to Lake County jail records. She was charged with one count of child abuse and released on a $1,000 bond.
Capri told WESH that the substitute should not have done what she did. “She has a responsibility to that classroom to protect kids,” he told the outlet. “Not abuse them.”