Child endangerment charge against former teacher dismissed
Sean Keen
Herald Staff Writer
CLINTON — Tuesday brought vindication for a former Washington Middle School teacher who resigned last June.
A charge of child endangerment causing serious injury against Gene R. Gonzales, 49, of 2738 N. 11th St., was dismissed Tuesday.
Court documents said information gathered during depositions conflict with the original complaint and affidavit.
These conflicts are cited as grounds for dismissal.
Gonzales was accused in connection with an incident that occurred in April 2006 while he was teaching a physical education class.
Court records accuse Gonzales of breaking a 13-year-old disabled boy’s arm during a class in the school’s wrestling room.
The police affidavit alleges that students were playing a wrestling game called “hole in the ice” when Gonzales joined the game.
Gonzales was wrestling with a mentally disabled child, who told the teacher to get off of him multiple times, the document says.
Court records allege Gonzales initially refused to release the student, and he finally relented when another student told him to do so. Gonzales was kneeling when another student shouted “give him the people’s elbow.”
The “people’s elbow” is a professional wrestling move where the wrestler jumps on an opponent while driving his elbow into the opponent’s body.
According to court records, as the student attempted to get up off the mat, Gonzales performed the “people’s elbow,” dropping his full body weight onto the student, breaking the student’s arm.
Gonzales resigned in June 2006, after serving the district for nearly a decade.
He taught middle school math, physical education and health. He was also an assistant sophomore football coach and assistant varsity wrestling coach at Clinton High School.
Gonzales was arrested in October and charged with child endangerment causing serious injury, a class C felony, punishable by a maximum of 10 years in prison.
The case against Gonzales was dismissed based upon the information gathered during the deposition of the alleged victim and two physicians.
During deposition, the alleged victim agreed that the injury was the result of an “unfortunate accident,” contrary to his initial statement.
In addition, the emergency room physician said the victim’s injury did not to appear to have been caused by the receipt of “the people’s elbow.”
The state consulted a pediatrician with expertise in the field of physical abuse that agreed with the emergency room physician’s opinion.
“The investigation showed that the incident in my physical education class for which I was charged was not intentional as stated in the motions filed by the state,” Gonzales said. “The accident did not happen as originally alleged.
“It was an unfortunate accident which occurred while I was participating with students in a P.E. game. Many other teachers have played the same game in P.E. I am truly sorry that one of my students got hurt,” Gonzales said.
