A teacher at Bailey Middle School in West Haven is speaking out after his termination over an incident caught on camera showing him pulling a chair away while a student was sitting on it.
Police launched an investigation after receiving a cell phone video of eighth grade science teacher David Pfaff, 31, aggressively pulling a chair out from underneath a student at the middle school, but no arrest has been made at this time, police said.
The incident happened several videos and Pfaf said he never intended for it to get out of hand. A student with behavioral problems refused several times to get up from his chair when Pfaff asked him multiple times to move so others could use the table he was at, Pfaff said. Pfaff said he offered the students options to leave the room or talk to support personnel, but the student spoke to him and his peers using inappropriate language and he asked him one more time to "please move."
“He used very, very, very inappropriate language towards me and towards other students," Pfaff said.
When the student still didn't budge, Pfaff said he was faced with three options -- to let it go, to call security for help or to intervene.
“I felt like calling security, getting the administration involved – the school administration involved – and having him sent to in-school suspension or whatever discipline measure they said was necessary. I felt that was overkill," Pfaff said.
He said he didn't think he could do nothing, so he decided to employ a technique he observed other teachers use in similar situations -- moving a student's chair to get the child to stand so the teacher could then escort them to another space in the room.
“I felt that I needed to intervene in some way that I had not previously done," Pfaff said.
But, when he did it, the student didn't stand up, so the kid fell to the ground.
Pfaff said he never meant for that to happen and that he would never harm a student.
“I looked at him and I looked at the chair. I know you are not supposed to touch a student. You don’t do that," Pfaff said. “I never meant for that to happen. Never.”
The student got up and didn't complain of being in pain, but had a meltdown, knocking over chairs and throwing objects in the room, forcing Pfaff to have to call security anyway, Pfaff said.
“He told me, you know, he told me he was fine," Pfaff said.
Security personnel removed the student from the classroom, Pfaff said.
West Haven Superintendent Neil Cavallaro released a statement on the incident, stating, “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 admitted that the incident made him worried he would be fired and then he learned four days ago that someone had filmed the incident on a cell phone.
“I did not see them recording me whatsoever," Pfaff said.
He was told the video was being released to the district and that an investigation into the incident on the video would be opened, Pfaff said. He was escorted to his car and told he was being put on home leave during the investigation. On Friday, police said they were also opening an investigation and his union representatives notified him the same day he was going to be fired, Pfaff said.
Regarding the situation, he said that teachers often have to make split-second decisions. When asked if he thinks he went too far, he said, " it’s kind of difficult to judge in the moment whether you’re going too far, whether or not you aren’t,” but that “if I had to do it again, I wouldn’t have taken the same course of action.”
“You’re presented with a situation and you don’t have two minutes to think over all the results that could happen to that," Pfaff said. "You have to make a decision in 10 seconds, 20 seconds.”
He said he is sorry for what happened and regrets the incident, which he said has been weighing on his mind.
He has since spoken with fellow teachers and administrators about it in the hopes to learn from it.
“I loved my job. Did it come with challenges? Yeah, it did," Pfaff said.
Pfaff had been teaching at the school for three months and was in a probationary period as a new teacher. He has about a year of teaching experience and substituted in Waterbury schools previously.
“A good teacher always questions everything they do and they always try to improve upon for next time," Pfaff said.
School officials declined to comment further on the situation because it is a personnel matter and remains under investigation.
West Haven police said they cannot release the video because it's part of their investigation.
Pfaff said he's looking to find a lawyer and said he doesn't have all of the protections of the teachers' union.
“I feel bad. I feel really, really bad about everything that has happened," Pfaff said.