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Teacher Acquitted on All Charges for Assault on Student

SCRANTON — A teacher, accused of assaulting a student this spring, had his name cleared in court Thursday. The former Abington Heights eighth grade teache...
william yelland

SCRANTON -- A teacher, accused of assaulting a student this spring, had his name cleared in court Thursday.

The former Abington Heights eighth grade teacher was acquitted on all charges.

We spoke with two jurors in this case. They told us it took just seconds for the jury to find former teacher William Yelland not guilty of assault.

Yelland was acquitted on all the charges against him.

In April, a student at Abington Heights Middle School accused Yelland of putting him in a choke hold that caused injuries.

But over the course of the trial, other students testified for the defense saying that what they saw was more like horse play.

Yelland also took the stand in his own defense saying he never intended to harm the student.

"There's no question there are very few things that are this hard to go through, but we knew from the beginning when we sat down with him for our meeting the first time that this was something he was adamant he didn't do, and he wanted to clear his name, and thankfully his name has been cleared," said Yelland's attorney Curt Parkins.

"We have the utmost respect for the jury system and the jury that sat in this case, but of course we do not agree with the verdict. We believe as strongly today as we did on April 8 that no student should come with injuries caused by their teacher," said Mariclare Hayes, Lackawanna County district attorney's office.

Yelland says he was fired from the Abington Heights School District after the incident in April. The district superintendent would not confirm that, saying it's a personnel issue.

As to whether Yelland could get his job back, the superintendent told us any decision the district makes is separate from the court decision and has not said if he will get his job back.

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