‘I don’t think he’ll survive prison’: Student with autism who knocked out teacher’s aide over claimed threat to take away Nintendo Switch learns his fate

MATT NAHAM
Aug 7th, 2024, 6:58 am



Left: Brendan Depa knocks paraprofessional Joan Naydich unconscious (Flagler County Sheriff’s Office). Right inset: Depa appears in court for sentencing on Aug. 6, 2024 (Seventh Judicial Circuit Court of Florida).

After a mother begged a Florida judge not to hand down a prison sentence to a student with autism who knocked out and then continued beating a teacher’s aide over a claimed threat to take away his Nintendo Switch, the court listened carefully to testimony for the rest of Tuesday and concluded that five years behind bars was the appropriate punishment.

Brendan Depa, who will turn 19 in approximately two weeks, had faced three decades of prison time for the attack on Matanzas High School paraprofessional Joan Naydich, an attack caught on school surveillance video which went viral and eventually led to Depa’s no contest plea, as an adult, to a first-degree felony charge of aggravated battery on a school employee.



Authorities, citing video of the attack, said that Depa, then 17, could been seen “kicking” an “unconscious” Naydich and punching her “body and back of the head approximately 15 times” while she was on the floor. The sheriff’s office further said that Depa tried spitting at Naydich once EMS arrived.

But according to Depa’s lawsuit, school employees were well aware of his “disabilities, triggers and problem behaviors,” as well as other incidents where he was disciplined for threats, spitting, pushing an aide, “harassing and intimidating the school staff,” and for yelling at one of his teachers.

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