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Parents not happy with district’s response after 'bully' teacher told to tone it down

Some parents in the Hernando County school district say their concerns about a “bully” kindergarten teacher are being ignored by school administrators.

BROOKSVILLE, Fla. — Tomas Valerio says the bullying in his daughter’s kindergarten class at Pine Grove Elementary got so bad that he decided to send her to school wearing a secret recording device.

Valerio says his daughter's bully is the teacher.

“This was something that took some time and some thought,” Valerio said of his decision to covertly record the teacher. “We had already brought up our concerns to the school and we were already brushed off.”

Valerio says he was told by the principal at Pine Grove Elementary that the teacher in question, who's been with the district for more than a decade, is known to be loud. When he presented the principal with the audio recordings, he assumed it would be indisputable evidence that would force the district to act.

“We expected to go to school, show the principal the recordings and we expected some sort of action,” he said.

Over more than six hours of recordings, Valerio says the kindergarten teacher can be heard yelling: “Stop! Stop talking for once in your lives!”

At another point in the recording, Valerio says the teacher is heard yelling at a student for putting an open drink in his backpack: “Why would you put an open drink in your backpack? It’s common sense. What’s going to happen to a drink that is open and goes into your backpack?”

“We were disgusted by what we were hearing,” Valerio told 10News. He and a small group of parents joined together Tuesday evening to peacefully protest outside the scheduled school board meeting.

"What she's saying and how she's saying it is condescending and bullying to these little children,” Valerio said. “It's harmful to their growth and it's harmful to their emotions."

Valerio says they've transferred their daughter to a new school.

But as far as the district is concerned, this case is closed.

Administrators instructed the teacher in question to tone it down and watch her volume with no further action necessary, according to disciplinary records released to 10News.

The report is filled with glowing interviews and testimonials from other students and faculty.

One student interviewed said the teacher in question was nice because she gave them M&M's at the end of the day and does something called the Treasure Box on Friday. A fellow teacher wrote that her classroom runs like a well-oiled machine.

Some students did admit in interviews with administration the teacher in question is known to yell when she gets upset.

The report shows Pine Grove’s principal warned the teacher about her choice of words, supposedly after she remarked to a student who wasn’t listening, "Are you deaf?"

RELATED: Disciplined for child abuse, drugs and worse: These teachers are still allowed in Florida classrooms

Administrators never reviewed the audio because they argue the way it was obtained is against district policy.

According to the Hernando County Sheriff's Office, it is not illegal to record this way when it is in an atmosphere where there is no expectation of privacy, like a public school building.

A petition to remove the teacher from the classroom has more than 1,500 signatures.

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