A high school gym teacher is facing a criminal charge for trying to drag a 13-year-old student into a pool. INSIDE EDITION speaks to the student and her parents.
A disturbing video showing a gym teacher trying to drag a 13-year-old girl into a pool is sparking outrage today.
In the video, the girl yells, "Stop!"
The screaming girl does her best to resist.
"Let go of me!" she says.
But the teacher, a hulking middle aged man, keeps yanking away.
Watch the Video
Now, the teenager who asked not to be named, but whose mother permitted us to interview, is speaking out exclusively on INSIDE EDITION.
She said, "It makes me want to cry, seeing the video."
Her mom, Susie Garcia, sat on the right and her attorney, Gilbert Somera, on the left.
Somera told INSIDE EDITION, "'No' means no. 'Stop' certainly means stop. This was carried on for more than a minute and a half, two minutes. He dragged her down from the stairs. She's got big bruises on her leg. At some point as an adult, you have to say, 'What am I doing?'"
The girl says she didn't want to swim because she had just gotten her hair done, but her gym teacher refused to excuse her from swimming. That's when all hell broke lose.
The teenager even shouted out that her top is coming off in the struggle.
In the video, she yells, "My shirt's going down!"
The girl told INSIDE EDITION, "I was really upset. I was embarrassed and angry that he was doing all of this in front of people and just putting his hands on me."
Her mom says she was horrified when she saw the video which was captured on a cell phone by her daughter's friend.
Susie said, "You don't expect a teacher to do this to your child when she goes to school."
The gym teacher, identified as Denny Peterson, has been suspended from his teaching job and charged with bodily injury to a child.
Somera said, "It is absolutely not okay, ever, for a man to put his hands, especially on a 13-year-old girl."
We can't even imagine what he was thinking.
