News, Weather and Sports for Lincoln, NE; KLKNTV.comLPD: LSW Teacher cited for assaulting student

LPD: LSW Teacher cited for assaulting student

By: Newsroom
8@klkntv.com

A local high school teacher is in hot water. Police say they ticketed a teacher at Southwest High after he assaulted a student. Lincoln Police say the incident happened last Friday towards the end of the school day.

Police say the students were being disruptive in Luigi Catalano's Spanish class. Investigators say the teacher lost his patience with a student, grabbed a 17-year old boy by the front of his jacket, and threw him up against a classroom door.

"The student did suffer a lump to the back of his head. Several students witnessed the incident, interviews were conducted. And on Wednesday, that teacher, Luigi Catalano was cited and released for assault," Officer Katie Flood says.

LPS officials tell us Catalano, who'd been teaching at Southwest since last fall was removed that day. "Assault or roughage...behavior like that...very inappropriate behavior and that's the accusation, they're immediately removed from their assignment while we investigate," Nancy Biggs with LPS said.

As part of the investigation, LPS officials say they'll be looking into all that led up to the incident.  And whether or not Catalano's actions were justified. From there, they'll decide whether or not to fire him. They tell us this is a situation where they have to consider many things.

"When you can touch students and when you can't. And I mean touch in terms of take hold of an arm or do something like that. We're very specific about that," Biggs said.

Police tell us Catalano has no prior criminal record. And was very cooperative. LPS is investigating, from there they'll decide what to do next.