SLO County teacher placed on leave after telling student, ‘Snap your neck is what I do’
A Morro Bay High School teacher has been placed on paid administrative leave after he broke up an altercation involving his daughter and another student by telling the other girl, “Snap your neck is what I do.”
The incident was captured in a 46-second video and involved the daughter of teacher David Kelley and another student, according to sources who asked to remain anonymous.
Video of the altercation, which occurred on Oct. 12 at Los Osos Middle School, was shared with The Tribune and posted on YouTube.
The video shows a student dressed in yellow athletic clothing punching another student before they’re broken up by adults, including Kelley.
The nature of the dispute, nor what took place before the camera footage captured the exchange, is not clear.
As the two girls are broken up by an adult woman and Kelley, the student who was punched yells: “Right here b----, walk away with your little daddy” and then something like “What are you going to do?”
The student dressed in yellow who threw the punch was Kelley’s daughter, sources said.
The video then shows Kelley (wearing black pants and a brown shirt) walking toward the student and saying, “You know what I’m going to do? Snap your neck is what I do. Threaten my child again. Threaten my child again and see what happens to you. See what happens to me. ... Threaten my family. See what will happen.”
Kelley is separated as he walks toward the student, yelling at her, and adult woman pushes the other girl back while Kelley’s daughter restrains him.
Teacher placed on leave while San Luis Coastal investigates
Kelley has been placed on paid administrative leave, according San Luis Coastal School District Director of Human Resources Dan Block.
“Mr. Kelley has been afforded limited opportunities to communicate with the substitute and students in order to support student progress,” Block said.
Block added that the district follows the California Education Code when taking disciplinary action against certificated employees.
“If an employee with us is accused of misconduct, we conduct a thorough investigation and we cannot act until that investigation is concluded,” Block said. “We always take concerns about employees seriously.”
Block said the incident was reported to law enforcement officials.
In response to questions from The Tribune, Sheriff’s Office spokesman Tony Cipolla said in an email that the department investigated and documented the incident and “determined it did not rise to the level of a crime that would allow us to forward the case to the District Attorney’s Office.”
Cipolla added: “It is an internal matter for the school district to conduct their own investigation. I would reach out to them for further information on the incident.”
Cipolla said Kelley’s comments toward the student didn’t rise to the level of a criminal threat under California law, which applies if “the threat was so clear, immediate, unconditional, and specific that it communicated to the victim a serious intention and the immediate prospect that the threat would be carried out.”
Cipolla added the law applies when “victims have sustained fear for (his/her) own safety or for the safety of (his/her) immediate family.”
Cipolla said when the male subject, Kelley, said, “Snap your neck is what I would do, threaten my child again” the female “continued not to back down and had to be pushed away from the area.”
“When a deputy later interviewed the female, she was not afraid of the male and was not in sustained fear from the male’s statement,” Cipolla added.
Kelley didn’t respond to emailed questions for comment about the incident.
Kelley fired as football coach for using homophobic slur
Kelley was fired as Morro Bay’s football coach in 2018 for reportedly using language insensitive and intolerant to the LGBTQ community as he addressed a player in the locker room. Kelley was allowed to remain employed as a teacher at Morro Bay High, after being let go as a coach.
The principal of the school at the time, Kyle Pruitt, told The Tribune in a phone interview that what happened “made me sick to my stomach.”
“What I can say is the coach directed comments to a student athlete that would offend anybody in the LGBTQ community — actually they would offend anybody. I was offended when I heard it,” Pruitt told The Tribune at the time.
Before that, Kelley resigned from his position as football coach at SLO High in 2013 after some players philosophically disagreed with his play-calling schemes and the team won only one league game, finishing 4-6 that season after a 3-0 start.
Still, a player who disagreed with Kelley’s system said he respected Kelley as a coach at the time.
This story was originally published November 6, 2021 at 10:05 AM with the headline "SLO County teacher placed on leave after telling student, ‘Snap your neck is what I do’."
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