A senior church leader who spanked a group of fourth graders that were allegedly being “disruptive and disrespectful” will not be prosecuted despite multiple parents filing complaints of child abuse with the Orlando Police Department.

The office of Andrew Bain, the State Attorney for the Ninth Judicial Circuit, issued a statement on Wednesday with their findings in the case, which was opened last year by the Orlando Police Department.

In November 2023, several parents of students at Alpha Learning Academy, which is owned by Saint Mark AME Church (1960 Bruton Boulevard, Orlando), contacted the Orlando Police Department to file complaints of child abuse against one of the senior leaders at the church.

In their statements, parents told authorities that on November 2, 2023, the senior leader was asked to interview in their children’s fourth-grade classroom due to “disruptive and disrespectful behavior,” according to the statement.

The parents alleged that the leader administered corporal punishment to 16 students in the form of “three lashes to their hip, legs, and backside using a leather belt.” According to the complaints, the parents stated that they did not consent to corporal punishment and were not notified before it was administered.

At the time, the parents stated that the school’s parent handbook made no mention of corporal punishment as being an approved form of discipline.

During the ensuing investigation, officers discovered previous version of the school’s parent handbook did in fact include a provision for corporal punishment as an alternative to home suspension.

In the school’s most current handbook for the 2023-2024 school year, the parent handbook lacked the corporal punishment provision.

During an interview with the senior leader, the man admitted that he spanked the children, but said he only did so after warning the students about the potential consequences if they continued misbehaving.

The senior leader also told authorities that the school’s principals and counselors had used corporal punishment in previous years, and that he was unaware of the change to the handbook for the 2023-2024 school year.

Bain’s office determined that formal charges would not be filed after reviewing the case and finding that child abuse could not be proven “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

“Established Florida case law (Morris v. State, 228 So.3d 670 (1st DCA 2017)) grants teachers and school personnel the authority to maintain discipline within the scope of parental expectations and practices and exempts them from potential criminal charges,” reads Bain’s statement.

According to Bain, the state could not “prove there was an intent to inflict physical injury or bodily harm to the children.”

“While the senior leader did strike the children, he did so reasonably believing that he had the authority,” reads the statement.

According to Florida law, child abuse requires the intentional infliction of physical injury or an intentional act reasonably expected to cause injury to a child.

“It is not reasonable to expect three lashes over clothing would cause an injury and this incident does not meet the statutory requirements for child abuse under Florida law,” reads Bain’s statement.