A school nurse told investigators Porzio was “bleeding significantly” and needed medical attention. Porzio’s girlfriend drove him to a hospital.
The district’s investigation faulted Porzio for trying to prevent Turner from entering the building, failing “to get help or defuse” the situation and for agitating Turner. The report said he also violated a Spruce rule that teachers never leave their classrooms unattended.
Porzio, a Teach for America teacher, told investigators that he monitored part of the school to enforce a Spruce policy that prohibits students who leave from re-entering.
It took several days before charges were filed. A Dallas ISD police officer first told Porzio the case would be handled administratively by the Office of Professional Responsibility, according to the district’s investigation.
Both Charles Tuckey, DISD’s school discipline director, and Joni Jalloh, a DISD attorney, reviewed the incident and determined Turner couldn’t be disciplined by the school “due to the case facts,” the report states. And Charlene Turner said school administrators told her Delvron wouldn’t face charges.
Porzio, however, pressed for charges with DISD police until a report was made two days later. A felony arrest warrant was issued in January.
In the meanwhile, the incident divided teachers at Spruce and spilled into the community, where two trustees got involved and southern Dallas pastors expressed concern about the charges against Turner. In January, board president Lew Blackburn sent an email to DISD Superintendent Mike Miles raising questions about the incident, which he said trustee Bernadette Nutall told him about.
“While I don’t condone inappropriate behavior by students, I also don’t condone teachers and other employees exasterbating [sic] an incident with a student,” he wrote in an email obtained by The News thorough an open-records request. “Mike Miles and [DISD police Chief Craig] Miller have both explained that the teacher has legal right to touch the student. However, was it the right approach?”
Pastor Donald Parish at True Lee Missionary Baptist Church said he was asked to watch the footage at Spruce. “It would be a travesty of justice to have this boy, who was 18 years old, spend the rest of his life with a felony on his record for something that could have been avoided,” Parish said. “The teacher looked like he was being overzealous in his efforts to have the young man outside the building.”
Pastor Omar Jahwar of Faith Memorial Church said he arranged a February meeting with Miles because the incident had “turned into a community issue.” He said he told Miles that Turner deserved a criminal charge but not a felony. He also told Miles that some teachers, particularly ones from Teach for America, don’t know how to interact with urban students. “I don’t think they are properly trained with urban children. It’s just like if you are ESL-certified or LEP-certified or special needs-certified. Are you urban certified?” Jahwar said. (ESL and LEP refer to teachers who are certified to work with students with limited English skills.)
Jahwar, who has experience with gang intervention, said he offered to train teachers for free on how to handle children from the inner city.
A communications director with Teach for America, which places recent college graduates as teachers in urban school districts nationwide, said its teachers go through training on how to handle similar situations. Dallas ISD has 170 TFA teachers.
Turner avoided arrest for a few weeks after the incident until Mesquite police arrested him at a Target, where he was suspected of stealing batteries, video games, fried chicken and giving a false name. He has remained in jail, with a $5,000 bond.
“I love my son to death. But he knows right and wrong. He knows to be respectful,” Charlene Turner said. “He thinks he is grown and can talk to anyone anyway. These are the consequences.”
He must be a real POS.
that cac.
But the kid is going to have to accept the consequences of his action as well.
i remember teachers in school used to stalk kids who would go smoke weed and then when the kids return to class they get harassed 
like wtf is the point of that? i couldn't imagine being a teacher and taking the energy to stalk some highschool kids who stepped out to smoke some harmless weed and then RETURN to the school like brah go find something to do with your day loser.
