Cape teacher accused of assaulting student at football game

A Cape Girardeau teacher is facing misdemeanor charges after police say he assaulted a student during a Cape Girardeau Central High School football game Oct. 14.

High-school staff alerted Cape Girardeau police officer Brendon Whitlock, who was working security, after a juvenile student and his mother said Roman D. Smith, a science teacher at Cape Girardeau Junior High School, grabbed the student's wrist and twisted his arm behind his back, according to a probable-cause statement filed by Whitlock in the case.

The statement also said Whitlock found Smith, 36, slurring his speech with bloodshot eyes and alcohol on his breath.

When escorted inside the school for questioning, Smith told high-school staff members he'd grabbed the student's wrist and admitted to drinking before coming onto school property.

When questioned, Smith told the officer the victim had been "obnoxious."

When asked about grabbing the student, Smith said he "did it to deflect off of me." The officer asked him to clarify his statement. Smith replied he didn't want the incident to be "blown out of proportion."

"It wasn't like I grabbed him with both of my hands, put my thumbs on his wrist and then twisted his arm into an arm bar," Smith said, according to the statement.

He also told Whitlock he sometimes hit his students to discipline them.

"I hit my students," he said, according to the statement. "When my students do something wrong or begin to act a fool, I hit them on their shoulder as a reminder."

Police released Smith to another staff member, who took him home.

Smith was placed on administrative leave after the incident and has been charged with two counts of third-degree assault.

Whitlock investigated further Monday, speaking with the victim's mother again and other witnesses.

The victim's mother said her son and some friends had been trying to access the student section, called the "Jungle," when Smith told him he couldn't be there since he had missed Smith's third-period class. The victim tried to explain he had been at the doctor's office and had returned for fourth hour.

The victim said when he held up four fingers to indicate fourth hour, Smith grabbed his wrist and twisted it behind his back.

A witness who captured the incident on her phone shared the video with Whitlock, who recounted it in the probable-cause statement. Whitlock said on the video, Smith is seen saying to someone off-camera, "Oh, you wasn't even at school today. Go, go over there." The victim then is seen holding up four fingers with his right hand, which Smith then grabs with both hands and twists, causing the student to lean toward the ground, the officer wrote.

Smith has taught science at the junior high since he was hired for the 2013-2014 school year.

He previously taught at Central High School but was placed on administrative leave and later resigned in 2012 after being charged with third-degree assault after he was accused of choking a student to unconsciousness in a downtown parking lot.

Three high-school students testified during the trial they believed Smith to have been drunk before choking the student until he was unconscious. Smith testified the hold had been in self-defense, and he had felt threatened by the student, who was larger than he was.

The jury found him not guilty.

Cape Girardeau School District superintendent Jim Welker said before the incident at the football game, the school district had not received complaints about Smith using physical force on students.

"He was found not guilty of those charges," Welker said when asked whether the allegations from 2012 factored into the district's decision to rehire Smith in 2013. "We needed a junior-high science teacher."

tgraef@semissourian.com

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