Investigation found Manatee teacher abused her students. District let her keep her job
Kindergarten students at Braden River Elementary School were scared of their teacher, Sheri Fink. She called them “stupid,” “dumb” and “the worst class she ever had,” according to a state investigation.
The investigation by state education administrators started in July 2018, as the last of three local investigations of Fink were wrapping up, and it found the teacher did more than disparage her students.
“She grabbed me by my shoulders, both of them, super hard, and pulled me over to the whiteboard,” one student told a state investigator. “My feet were off the floor. Then Ms. Fink pushed me onto the floor by my shoulders and made me stay there for the rest of class.”
“She pushed me and my friend when we were at lunch,” another student said. “I fell but it didn’t hurt. It made me feel defeated.”
Child welfare investigators already determined that Fink had physically abused children in her care. But for a year afterward, Manatee County school officials allowed her to continue teaching after a transfer to another school, according to records obtained by the Bradenton Herald.
When school ended last summer, Fink was allowed to quietly retire — her state pension intact. She voluntarily surrendered her teaching license to the Florida Department of Education months later.
In a phone call to Fink’s number on Tuesday evening, a man said Fink was not available for comment. The man then hung up before a message could be left.
Call to child abuse hotline sparked probe
The investigation into Fink began in April 2018, when another educator phoned the Florida Department of Children and Families’ child abuse hotline.
The call was made by Delynn Dorman, a retired special education teacher and a volunteer in Fink’s classroom. Some of Dorman’s concerns were shared by parents and school employees who had complained in the past.
Dorman shared her experiences during an interview with the Bradenton Herald.
“She’d call them stupid. She’d call them babies. Almost anything and everything,” Dorman said. “Then I noticed the physical abuse started to come in.”
In May 2018, DCF investigators closed their case, concluding that Fink had physically abused some of her students.
The school district, however, did not consider the verified abuse “good cause” to fire Fink.
A committee of district administrators instead recommended that Fink receive a two-day suspension and a letter of reprimand, along with a classroom transfer.
“Good cause” is required to fire a contracted teacher, school district attorney Mitchell Teitelbaum said during an interview this week with the Bradenton Herald. But when asked whether child abuse is considered “good cause,” Teitelbaum referred back to the committee’s recommendation.
“The disciplinary review committee, having reviewed the evidence, did not come to that conclusion,” he said.
Administrators recommend suspension
On Aug. 20, 2018, the school district convened its Discipline Review Committee, which included Willie Clark, the executive director of secondary education; Annette Codelia, the executive director of elementary education; and Sarah Brown, the former head of human resources.
The panel issued its recommendation, including the two-day suspension and the classroom transfer, allowing Fink to continue teaching at another school, Ballard Elementary. Superintendent Cynthia Saunders approved their recommendation and issued the reprimand days later.
Fink violated two policies, according to the letter of reprimand. It said she intentionally exposed a student to “unnecessary embarrassment or disparagement,” and that she failed to make “reasonable effort to protect the student from conditions harmful to learning.”
“A call was placed to the abuse hotline and Child Protective Services’ (CPS) investigation determined that your actions were deemed as physical abuse despite no physical injuries,” the superintendent wrote, noting that authorities declined to pursue charges.
The school district did not make Saunders available to the Herald for questioning about the Fink case. On Tuesday, she did not return a message left on her cell phone by a reporter.
Teitelbaum said that Manatee officials considered not only the findings of child protection investigators, but also the conclusions of law enforcement and the school district’s own investigator. He then read from the criminal investigation:
“There were no remarkable injuries observed by CPS and patrol during the initial interviews. Although two of the children say that Mrs. Fink has touched and grabbed them before, the children are not able to go into detail regarding the incidents and how they started and what may have provoked anything physical.”
Deputies went on to say that Fink was unwilling to speak, and that parents “did not seem concerned about the allegations.”
Teacher didn’t have ‘intent’ to cause harm, school investigator says
Troy Nelson, the school district’s investigator, highlighted Fink’s 18-year tenure with the school district, and her spotless personnel record. He concluded there was “consistent reporting from the victims and witnesses to believe Ms. Fink committed some of the actions reported.”
However, he said Fink touched the students “in a corrective manner” and “not with any intent to cause physical harm or injury.”
Nelson clarified his findings in a recent interview.
“That’s just how I described it in my report because I do believe that she did touch the kids, pull them, take them to certain spots,” he said. “When I say corrective manner, obviously teachers sometimes take kids, move them from place to place, take them by the arm, take them by the hand.”
Fink went on to continue teaching at Ballard Elementary School until she retired on June 1. In August, the state’s education commissioner, Richard Corcoran, issued a “finding of probable cause” to Fink, pursuing sanctions against her teaching certificate.
State investigators believe Fink “inappropriately disciplined her kindergarten students, embarrassed students and directed disparaging statements toward individual students and the class as a whole.”
Fink voluntarily surrendered her license, choosing to “not contest any of the allegations or charges,” and agreeing that a new certificate would never be issued — ending her career in Florida’s public schools.
In a follow-up email on Tuesday afternoon, district spokesman Mike Barber highlighted the one-year delay between the school district’s actions and the state’s final decision. He also reiterated the outcome of criminal and internal investigations, weighing them against child protection investigators’ findings of verified abuse.
“The difficulty is ensuring the safety of all of our students — which is the top priority of the school district — while also safeguarding the rights of due process afforded to employees accused of wrongdoing,” Barber wrote.
Early signs of abusive behavior
Whether it was a student coloring outside the lines or a child who had trouble learning, witnesses said Fink was easily frustrated.
A student left Braden River Elementary shortly after the school year started in August 2017. His parents followed up several months later and requested a new teacher “with a more positive classroom environment.”
In December 2017, a teacher complimented Fink on her class while in the hallway, and according to the teacher, Fink responded by saying it was “the worst class ever,” according to a log of complaints compiled by the school’s principal that were reviewed by state and local investigators.
“She was concerned that if Mrs. Fink was that negative with a peer present, she may be even more negative on her own with students in the classroom,” the log states.
Principal Hayley Rio compiled the log of parent and teacher complaints. According to an entry dated Feb. 15, 2018, a mother called Rio and complained about the teacher’s harsh criticism of her child, including Fink’s issue with the student “coloring outside the lines.”
“I do feel like the teacher simply doesn’t like my child, because she is a young kindergartner,” the mother said in an email, sent on the same day.
Rio forwarded the email to Fink, and though she urged the teacher to be mindful of her words, the principal also expressed doubt about the complaint.
“This is an example of why we have to be careful in how and what we communicate to parents,” Rio said in her email. “I’m sure this parent’s perception isn’t accurate, but it’s a shame that is what she’s thinking and feeling. It may mean her child is feeling that way, too.”
One month later, another parent emailed Rio about her son’s declining mental health, and concerns about his time in Fink’s classroom.
The mother praised her son after he read a Dr. Seuss book with ease. The son quickly asked his mother to share the compliment with Fink, who reportedly said the class was “no good and doing badly.”
“I have seen my son’s insecurity growing exponentially over the school year. He is constantly worried that he is not smart enough and I am very concerned now that the classroom environment is the cause of this gradual change in behavior,” the mother said in an email to Fink and Rio.
Fink then emailed the mother two days later, denying the accusation and promising to support her student more.
At one point, the principal “asked Mrs. Fink if she was OK, following complaints from teammates and other colleagues of Mrs. Fink’s negativity.” Rio reportedly told Fink “she lacked a passion for her job and didn’t seem to enjoy working with children.”
The final entry said a school counselor “witnessed several negative interactions in Mrs. Fink’s classroom and may be someone to talk to for further information.”
Principal Rio was aware of Fink’s reputation among colleagues, and she became the target of Fink’s aggression on at least one occasion.
“The teacher slammed her hands down on top of Mrs. Rio’s desk and left,” the log states, describing a March 2018 meeting.
Volunteer witnesses abuse
About three years before the allegations came to light, in 2015, a volunteer was brought into Fink’s classroom to help the frustrated teacher.
Delynn Dorman, a retired special education teacher from California, said she was asked by a friend, the Braden River Elementary librarian, to volunteer and help “a teacher that they were trying to fire.”
Dorman accepted the request and began volunteering within a week, she told the Bradenton Herald.
“It didn’t take long to notice she was, in my eyes, abusive toward the children. They would literally scream when I left,” Dorman said. “The kids were scared.”
As the school year went on, Dorman said she noticed Fink becoming more aggressive, transitioning from verbal to physical abuse.
She said Fink began to single out children in front of the class. Dorman would often find herself trying to calm the students, kneeling beside the children who were singled out and providing them some comfort.
Fink and Dorman went out to lunch together, she recalled, and the teacher shared the details of her personal struggles.
“She couldn’t separate home from school. That’s when I noticed her getting more physical with them,” Dorman said.
When students had trouble using the old technology in Fink’s classroom, she would push them out of their chairs and onto the floor so she could examine the computer, Dorman said. Other times, the teacher dragged students and tossed them under a classroom whiteboard, Dorman continued.
Dorman said other staff, administrators and parents witnessed the verbal attacks, while the physical abuse was isolated to her classroom.
“She didn’t have the control to stop,” Dorman said.
She watched in despair as Fink’s students began to learn the same behavior. Students would call each other stupid or dumb, names that Fink would often call them.
“The physical abuse got so bad that I wasn’t going to watch this anymore. I just went outside and broke down in tears,” Dorman remembered, getting teary eyed.
Dorman said she spoke with another teacher, who recommended going straight to the principal. She followed the teacher’s advice and ultimately called the Florida Department of Children and Families child abuse hotline.
‘It’s abuse,’ says witness
After speaking with the Bradenton Herald and learning about the school district’s recommended discipline of a suspension and a transfer for Fink, Dorman said she was shocked.
“Then I don’t know what you call abuse — I don’t. It’s abuse,” Dorman said. “You don’t do this to any children, not your children, not somebody else’s, not these school children. ... You’re the one that’s supposed to be there teaching them and helping them learn around things.”
Dorman is filled with regret, wishing that she had reported Fink sooner. However, Dorman said she was placed in an awkward position to help the teacher, and that she went above and beyond to make positive changes in the classroom.
But fear that Fink would remain in the classroom or be moved to another classroom was part of why she waited so long to report the teacher, she said. She felt the need to protect the children and had tried to teach Fink how to be better.
Dorman said she bought hundreds of dollars in supplies over the years, including a refrigerator for the classroom, and that she taught lessons and graded students’ work at home.
But the situation, she said, was slipping out of her control — Fink had to be reported and removed. Ultimately, Dorman believes that Fink imparted lasting scars on her students.
“Those kids were just so low self-esteem. She would tell them, ‘You’re never going to make it in first-grade’ and then they had to go to first grade,” Dorman said. “They were just so abused that they felt horrible about themselves. They didn’t like themselves. They felt they couldn’t even color right.”
Local investigations
Fink was investigated by four local and state agencies after the April 2018 call to a child abuse hotline.
The call prompted the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office to launch two simultaneous investigations, one a criminal probe and the other a child protection investigation. In Manatee County, the sheriff’s office conducts child welfare investigations on behalf of the Florida Department of Children and Families.
Patrol deputies and child protection investigators both met with Fink on May 7, 2018, but she “she refused to speak about the allegations without her attorney present,” an incident report states.
Child protection investigators closed their case that month, with a verified finding of abuse due to “physical injury.” Child protection investigators also concluded that no intervention services were needed, according to sheriff’s office spokesman Randy Warren.
“It was only accepted by the hotline because it is an institutional case,” Warren added.
The criminal investigation was conducted by patrol deputies, not by detectives who specialize in cases of crimes against children. Deputies and child protection investigators spoke with three students in Fink’s classroom.
During an April 2018 interview, one of the students said he was holding a book when Fink approached and demanded that he stop reading. Fink became upset, grabbed the student’s arm and then tossed a chair out from under him, throwing it across the classroom, according to the interview.
There was no bruise or mark left on the student’s arm, a deputy noted in the report.
A deputy and the assigned child protection investigator met with another student on the same day. The student confirmed that Fink would call her class “obnoxious,” along with “rude and disrespectful.”
“We asked (redacted) if Ms. Fink had ever grabbed her and she stated, ‘Yes, lots of times and when she does it makes me cry,’” deputies reported. “(Redacted) was asked whereabouts on her body did Ms. Fink grab her and she stated ‘she grabs me everywhere.’ (Redacted) was also asked if she had ever been pushed by Ms. Fink and she stated, ‘Yes, but I did not fall over.’”
Her parents told the deputy and the investigator that although they regularly received notes from Fink, who complained about their child, the school never informed them about any physical contact.
The criminal case was closed in July 2018 as “unfounded” by a detective who noted “that no witnesses had been located or come forward.” The report included a synopsis of the allegations from the abuse hotline, along with a summary of the investigations conducted by patrol deputies and the child protection investigator.
No additional attempts to speak with Fink were documented.
“Based on the investigations there is nothing at this time that suggests that a crime of abuse or neglect has occurred,” the detective stated in his conclusion. “Mrs. Fink is unwilling to speak about the incident.”
Accompanied by an attorney, Fink did speak with Nelson, the school district’s investigator, on Aug. 7, 2018. She outright denied the allegations of verbal and physical abuse, instead pointing to the students and calling them rude.
“Ms. Fink denies many of the verbal comments that are harsh and negative in nature and does have explanations for some,” Nelson reported. “Most of the comments seem to come during periods of frustration with the students.”
In one of her explanations, Fink addressed an allegation that she called one of the children a “hoochie coochie girl.”
“Ms. Fink did recall a conversation with several girls where she addressed how they were sitting with their legs apart and walking around with their hands on their hips,” Nelson wrote. “She told them that a girl that does this is sometimes called a hoochie girl.”
Two students “did report being grabbed, however with no marks or physical injuries occurring, the force to do this would be minimal,” Nelson continued.
“Child Protective Services did verify their report findings as physical abuse,” he noted, going on to question the finding. “This was done despite no physical injuries being sustained by any of the students.”
Florida Department of Education reacts
On Aug. 14, 2019, more than one year after the local investigations concluded, Richard Corcoran, the state’s education commissioner, said he found probable cause to discipline Fink, though she had already retired.
Instead of disputing the facts in a court hearing or negotiating a settlement, Fink voluntarily surrendered her educator certificate, meaning she elected to “not contest any of the allegations or charges,” according to a record from the state Department of Education.
“Your right to a Florida Educator’s Certificate,” the document states, “is forever revoked and relinquished.”
This story was originally published December 4, 2019 at 5:30 AM.
