A Florida teacher who was beaten unconscious by a student after she took his Nintendo Switch, recently opened up about the traumatic experience, nearly one year after the incident. The disturbing event happened in February 2023, when a female staff member of a Florida school was brutally thrashed by a teenage student after she confiscated his Nintendo Switch. The incident was captured on tape by the CCTV cameras, and it revealed the 6'6" and 270-pound 17-year-old autistic student pushing the teacher's assistant to the ground before continuing to punch and kick her. According to WESH-TV, the teenager is considered a special needs student.
Ahead of the sentencing slated for the teen later this month, Joan Naydich, 59, provided more details of the attack in an interview with the New York Post.
''The last thing I remember is having my hand on the door handle. I don't remember anything [else] until 3:30 p.m. when I came to. And at that point, I was in the ER and my son and daughter were standing there,'' she told The Post in her first major interview.
Ms Naydich also revealed how the teen spat at her and hurled expletives at her as she tried to move out the door.
''That's when he started calling me names. B***h', 'W***e', This and that. I grabbed my backpack and my sweatshirt and I got up to leave the class. The energy changed in there. I just wanted to remove myself from it. I didn't want to get into it with him.''
Before the attack, Ms Naydich, who had worked with Brendan Depa for more than a year, called him a ''normal kid.''
''Other than him being outwardly defiant, I didn't notice that there was anything wrong with him,'' she said. However, on the day of the attack, she sensed he was agitated but ''no more agitated than usual.''
Notably, the violent assault left her with five broken ribs, a concussion, and a shattered psyche.
Depa, who was charged as an adult, faces up to 30 years in prison for the first-degree felony charge of aggravated battery. Back in October, the teacher refused to help the teen's defense lighten his sentence and said she wants Depa sentenced to a maximum of 30 years behind bars.
''Everybody that knows me or knew me [before the attack] knows that I'm a different person now. My whole life was just turned upside down,'' she told Fox 35. The teen's sentencing hearing is slated for January 31.
Meanwhile, Ms. Naydich is currently on leave and has received no help from her former job. She is now living off donations. A GoFundMe account launched after the attack has so far raised roughly $137,017.
''It's not like I faked my injury. It's on video. They all know what happened to me. This is something of a magnitude, the viciousness, that has never happened in this county. I expected more from my employer, from my county, than to be treated like some person who faked a fall,'' she said.
