A Lecanto High teacher has been suspended after cell phone video surfaced, showing her as she watched two students fight.

Now Gilda Herrin, the teacher seen in the video, is defending herself against allegations that she laughed as she watched the fight.

In the video taken last April, Herrin can be seen standing with her hands on her hips, watching the scuffle. After several seconds, she moves in to break it up with the help of another teacher.

School leaders say Herrin did not do enough to stop the scuffle and protect the students, so she was suspended for five days.

"At 62, the girls outweigh me by 40 pounds," Herrin said. "I got arthritis in my wrist, fused vertebrae in my back. I'm not going to break up a fight by myself."

Herrin, who is a science teacher, appealed the suspension and told the Citrus County School Board she yelled at the two students to stop before the video was taken. She told the board she has broken up fights before.

"I've been injured twice," she said. "I was punched in the face once and I had my wrist sprained very badly a second time."

In the video, you can hear students say Herrin is laughing, but she says she never laughed. Herrin says she was standing by and monitoring the situation, waiting for help to arrive.

"They were both pulling hair," she said. "Nobody was kicking. They were not gouging. They were not biting. They were not punching and so I was waiting for help to break them apart."

After the hearing and watching the video several times, the school board voted to uphold the suspension.

Herrin has been teaching at Lecanto since 2000. She already served her five day suspension.

