I’m trying to make sense of this story, because right off the top – knowing the bare bones and having seen the absolutely horrific attack video when it happened – I do not see how any of these subsequent events are possible.

To refresh your memory: Joan Naydich was a “paraprofessional” teacher’s aide at Matanzas High School in Palm Coast, Florida. In late February of this year, she was escorting a 17-year old student named Brandon Depa between classrooms. That “paraprofessional” moniker meant she was assigned to assist teachers with students who had “individualized educational plans.” (Make of that what you will.)

…Naydich said she was assigned to Depa in August 2022. Her job was to escort him from his self-contained classroom where he studied along with three other students. Students in self-contained classrooms in Florida receive special-education services.

She would escort him to lunch, to the nurse and to a cybersecurity class during second period.

She said she didn’t know why she was assigned to escort Depa, adding that she was unaware of the details of his individualized education plan, or IEP.

Naydich said they would talk sometimes as she escorted him. She said Depa wanted a “buddy.” And he would make disparaging comments about her.

“He used to make comments of that I was too old. I was too slow,” Naydich said.

Another item unbeknownst to Naydich, besides the teen’s IEP, was that the 6 foot 6 inch, 270 pound Depa already had a juvenile record of three previous battery charges.

The teacher who ran the small self-contained classroom had apparently allowed Depa to use a Nintendo switch while in her room. But when Naydich noticed him pull it out in another classroom, she texted the spec-ed teacher to say she didn’t think he should be allowed to use it elsewhere during school. The spec-ed teacher agreed. But when Depa found out about Naydich’s texts, he was infuriated.

…“He came running up behind me as I was getting ready to leave. He spit at me,” Naydich said. “I turned around to him. And I said, ‘You know, that’s assault.’”

Naydich said she decided to go to the dean’s office where she knew there were deputies.

“Like I wasn’t, I didn’t think that he was going to come after me, but I just wanted to be away from the whole situation,” Naydich said.

And that was all she wrote.

The school surveillance video of the vicious attack, which Naydich herself has not watched to this day, is here:

Naydich weighs 150 pounds. Depa is still brutally kicking her motionless body even as school officials frantically try to pull his mountainous, malevolent form off of her.

…The student kicks her as she is still on the floor. She remains motionless as the student kneels down next to her and repeatedly punches her in the back and in the head, according to the video.

Adults arrive and try to pull the student off of the assistant. The student stomps on her after he is initially separated from her, according to the video.

A deputy’s body camera video shows the handcuffed student being led out of the school. As he walks by where the woman is being treated, the student tried to spit toward her and said he would kill her when he returned, according to the charging affidavit.

In the video the student is heard yelling “Stupid (expletive). I’m going to (expletive) kill you.”

Excruciating and unforgivable brutality.

…Naydich said the beating has left her with a traumatic brain injury. She suffered five broken ribs; three were broken in the front and the back. She has problems with her shoulder. She also has hearing and vision problems. She has been going to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville for treatment and she still does not know the full extent of the injuries.

Depa’s foster family has issued a statement, expressing regret and heartfelt sorrow for Naydich’s horrific injuries, and describing what they’ve been through raising this child.

… Even now, Brendan’s therapist reports that he has the emotional maturity of a 4 to 6-year-old. These symptoms are all part of the autism spectrum (ASD).

…I vividly recall during one emergency room trip a doctor telling me to expect the teen years for someone with ASD to be tough, because of the added component of hormone changes. He told me it would all start to calm down after he made it through puberty. It did not.

God bless them – this isn’t a case of neglect by any stretch of the imagination. But it doesn’t change the fact that people’s lives are in danger, and their son, whatever his issues, has nearly killed someone. Would have, had not enough people – and it took a buttload – been there to haul his manic body off that poor woman.

In the intervening months, Brandon Depa hasn’t exactly “cooled” his heels while sitting in jail on $1M bond. He’s managed to spit and swing his fists there, too – just like he did, spitting at Naydich’s practically lifeless body on the hall floor as they led him away from the scene.

Depa has a sentencing hearing on Jan 31 after pleading out. There are a fair amount of people who will be arguing before the judge for the maximum and with good cause.

…On Oct. 30, Depa entered an open no-contest plea to aggravated battery of a school board employee, a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison. According to state sentencing guidelines, he faces a minimum of 34.5 months in state prison.

The open plea means there was no agreement with Assistant State Attorney Melissa Clark on the penalty, including any length of time on incarceration.

Circuit Judge Terence Perkins has scheduled Depa’s sentencing for Jan. 31 at the Kim C. Hammond Justice Center in Bunnell.

One of those will be Naydich, who is getting put through the wringer again right now. This is where I don’t get what’s going on with the situation. In September:

The teacher’s aide whose beating at Matanzas High School was captured in a viral video received an “ultimatum” by the Flagler County School District to return to work by a specific date or resign, according to the organizer of her GoFundMe page.

Joan Naydich, the teacher’s aide who was beaten, backed up that account in an email to the News-Journal in which she wrote that she felt her only options were to resign or return to work.

And it’s only now that she’s finally able to see specialists? After a stomping like that?

…Naydich has been on medications from a neurologist, a psychiatrist and an orthopedic doctor as she works to recover. She said she is still in pain.

“As far as physically, I’m still going to a lot of doctors,” Naydich said. “Worker’s comp has been less than helpful through the whole situation, to where now it’s a little over eight months since everything happened, and I’m finally getting to certain doctors that I should have been to in the beginning.”

I know there are a lot of slipped-on-the-rug scam artists and workman’s comp “Ow. Muh back!” types in this world costing plenty with their fakery…

…”I was attacked on February 21st and I feel like I’m just constantly being attacked,” Naydich said, in reference to the medical and financial hurdles she’s faced in recent months.

…As for the financial impact this has had, according to Naydich, she’s been struggling to get her workers’ compensation case resolved. Naydich said she returned to work in August under a different title. Just a couple of days into her new assignment, she was placed on an unpaid leave of absence. Naydich said she is frustrated with what she called a lack of support from the Flagler County school district.

For now, she’s living off of donations from concerned community members, until she is able to find another stream of income.

…but DAY-YUM, Matanzas High School! You have the video of your own student doing this. “This” being something it damn well might take a little bit longer than five months to bounce back from.

Ever been kicked in the head, dudes?

You’re sure acting like it.

I would have thought a prudent head in the school system would have said, “It might behoove us to take the best care of this poor lady we can before she owns us.” But it seems that simple, humanist yet self preserving thought never occurred to the overeducated elite bean counters of the erudite class.

No, they’d far rather have to skitter out of a reporter’s path, trying to duck the peppering of questions about having an employee viciously assaulted almost to death during work, then being forced to live on donations due to those injuries thanks to a dearth of solicitude from those same employers afterwards.

It’s a great look.