A former Broward deputy working security at Blanche Ely High School punched a teenage student in the face, threw him on the ground and kneeled beside him in a Feb. 4 confrontation outside the school building, and it was caught on school surveillance video.
Ronald Thurston, 48, had been accused of using excessive force before. In 2022 he lost his job as a Broward Sheriff’s deputy after 23 years on the force amid allegations of shoving the head of a handcuffed man up against a patrol vehicle after threatening to stun him with a Taser.
This time, according to a probable cause affidavit released this week in response to a public records request, Thurston confronted 16-year-old students in an outdoor area of the Pompano Beach high school and ordered them to sit down on a bench.
The two teenagers complied. Moments later, one of them got up and started to walk past Thurston, which led to the former deputy pushing him back toward the bench. The young man got up again and pulled up his pants, at which point Thurston punched him, according to the report, which was based on a surveillance video.
Thurston threw the teenager to the ground and knelt beside him.
The deputy who filled out the report said he did not see injuries on the teenager’s face and neck, but a doctor who treated the young man said he had a fractured bone on his right hand.
The report gives no indication about why Thurston stopped the teenagers in the first place. The portion of the report offering Thurston’s account is blacked out.
Thurston is due in court next Wednesday for an arraignment hearing on charges of aggravated child abuse and felony battery, which could land him in prison for decades if he is convicted. His attorney is not named in the Broward Clerk of Courts’ website, and contact information for Thurston was not available as of Wednesday afternoon.
Thurston had been an outspoken critic of the sheriff and made public comments questioning the agency’s record on diversity.
The Broward school district reassigned Thurston after his early-February arrest.
Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457. Follow him on Threads.net/@rafael.olmeda
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