WEST HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — 31-year-old David Pfaff is apologizing for the actions he took in his 8th grade class at Bailey Middle School.
In the video, Pfaff yanks a chair out from under a West Haven student during science lab. The student falls to the ground. The incident unfolding after he says he asked the student to move during group rotation. He says the 8th grader refused to get up and then used inappropriate language at him and at the students in class.
Pfaff explained what happened in class.
“Mr. Pfaff get out of my face, and then he used very very inappropriate language with me, he told me to get out of here using a four letter word.”
Pfaff said he got the idea of yanking the chair because he remembered a technique he had seen used in other schools when he was studying to be a teacher.
“They would move the chair a little bit or a lot and it depended on the individual and the student would stand up and the teacher would escort the now standing student away from the area, but it didn’t happen that way did it? It did not,” said Pfaff.
Pfaff says the student was having behavioral issues, but says he didn’t know the extent until later that day. After the incident Pfaff was escorted to his car and then placed on home leave during the investigation. He has since been terminated. West Haven Superintendent of Schools, Neil Cavallaro sent News 8 this statement:
As soon as we were notified last week of the incident in question, we immediately contacted the appropriate authorities and terminated the teacher, who was still on the probationary period that all new teachers are on when they are hired in our district. We cannot comment further, as the investigation is ongoing and it is also a personnel matter.
Pfaff talked about the challenges of being a new teacher.
“I think more training would be good for teachers. I think teachers already complain on how much training we get but how to handle unruly students in the classroom. It’s becoming a problem. At the time, I didn’t think so, but I think that if more people would have been around to support me and help me out that this would have had a totally different outcome,” said Pfaff.
