Bradenton teacher got drunk at school, officials say. She could be charged with a crime
A former Bayshore Elementary School teacher is under criminal investigation for allegedly drinking while at work.
The State Attorney’s Office is investigating Brandi Lee Snyder for child neglect without great bodily harm after she was discovered “with drugs and alcohol in her bag” while at school on Dec. 18, 2023, according to a Manatee County Sheriff’s Office report obtained by the Bradenton Herald.
The sheriff’s office said that Snyder appeared to be under the influence of either drugs or alcohol, blowing a .095 in the breathalyzer. After blowing over the legal limit of .08 while at work, Snyder was fired from her job, according to the sheriff’s office report.
Snyder, 32, has not been arrested as part of the investigation, and the State Attorney’s Office has not decided whether to press charges for child neglect.
Reached for comment Tuesday afternoon, Assistant State Attorney Christina Walsh, who is overseeing the case, said she could not comment on any open or pending cases.
But a mother of one of the students in Snyder’s third-grade class said that despite being told that the teacher was fired in December, school officials never gave a reason.
Lismary Vicente, whose daughter was in Snyder’s class, said she only found out something more was going on when she received a letter from the State Attorney’s Office on Jan. 16 saying she was listed as the victim of a crime in a criminal case.
Former Bayshore teacher under investigation
The letter prompted Vicente to call the school and talk to the assistant principal, who she said seemed unaware of the letter.
The assistant principal instead directed Vicente to call the State Attorney’s Office for more information, she said.
Vincente said the State Attorney’s Office told her that Snyder abandoned the students sometime after the kids were taken to recess or some kind of special class.
The sheriff’s office found Snyder at an undisclosed location, where drugs and alcohol were discovered in her bag and she appeared to be under the influence, according to the sheriff’s office report.
In a statement released Monday afternoon, the Manatee County School District confirmed that a teacher at Bayshore Elementary was “involved in an incident on campus.”
“The teacher was immediately removed from the classroom and placed on leave and has had no contact with students in the school district,” school district spokesman Mike Barber said in an email to the Bradenton Herald.
The statement did not name Snyder or confirm whether she had been fired but said that the teacher submitted a resignation letter after the incident. The resignation letter must be approved by the School Board of Manatee County.
Parent calls for school transparency
Vincente said that while she is troubled by the allegation against Snyder, she also finds it concerning that the school didn’t disclose the circumstances around the teacher change in December.
“I think things need to start changing with how the school district operates with these things. I think that’s my really big thing is the community deserves to know about what happens with our kids inside the school,” Vincente said. “It’s a very important thing.”
Vincente said school administrators told her that they couldn’t provide information about the incident due to it being an active investigation.
The school district told the Bradenton Herald via email that it is “unable to comment further until the investigation is complete,” but said that student safety and campus security are its “highest priority.”
The school district also said that the principal and school have communicated with parents in the impacted classroom by phone and letter to introduce the new teacher and “acknowledge the State Attorney’s investigation.”
But Vincente said that most of her communication has been with the assistant principal, but only after she initiated the calls.
Vincente said she received a letter from the school in December, introducing a new teacher, but it didn’t explain why there was a change.
Snyder’s resignation letter is on the agenda for the Feb. 13 school board meeting. The meeting begins at 10 a.m. at the School Support Center, 215 Manatee Ave. W., Bradenton.
This story was originally published February 6, 2024 at 2:00 PM.
