Pembroke Pines music teacher accused of grabbing student by lanyard is arrested
A Pembroke Pines teacher was arrested following a scuffle with a student at a local charter school, court records show.
Marcos Rodriguez — a 50-year-old choir director at Franklin Academy Pembroke Pines — was booked in Broward Main Jail on Tuesday, May 26, after a midday lunchtime disruption turned physical at the K-12 school, reads his arrest report.
Security footage shows Rodriguez exited his second-floor classroom at around noon after reportedly hearing students banging on the outside of his classroom wall, wrote the Pembroke Pines Police Department.
In the video, the choir director runs in front of a student walking down the hallway, “grabs his lanyard with his left hand and pulls it toward him,” causing the student — who police say was taller than the teacher — “to bend forward and break his posture.”
Police say Rodriguez tried to grab hold of the student’s ID with his right hand and tugged hard enough that the boy was “seen having to walk forward due to the pulling.”
That prompted the student to push the teacher to “build distance between both parties,” with Rodriguez ending up with his back against the wall, until a security guard separated them, according to the report.
The boy later told officers he wasn’t part of the group that banged on Rodriguez’s classroom wall. The boy stayed behind while the other students ran away after the teacher stepped outside and demanded they go to the school’s administrative office, according to police.
Rodriguez reportedly told the boy to come with him to the office, but the student declined and wanted to go with the security guard instead, according to the boy’s account. The student said as he was walking away, Rodriguez ran in front of him.
Rodriguez told officers the boy walked away and lobbed an expletive at him, prompting the choir director to reach for the student’s ID to identify him, according to the report.
Investigators wrote Rodriguez snatched the lanyard “in an aggressive manner” and kept pulling on it throughout the altercation, leading police to arrest the teacher shortly after.
Both Rodriguez and the boy refused medical attention, but police say the student’s mother wished to prosecute, according to the arrest report.
The choir director — whose LinkedIn shows he’s worked at Franklin Academy since July 2024 — was released from Broward Main Jail on a $2,500 bond the following day, according to court records.
He faces a third-degree felony charge of child abuse without great harm.
Neither Franklin Academy Pembroke Pines nor Rodriguez responded to the Pembroke Pines News’ requests for comment by the time of publication.
