Kevin Adkisson
Introduction
Kevin Daniel Adkisson, 52, a special education teacher at Wadsworth Elementary School in Bunnell, Florida — known to students as “Mr. A” — was arrested at the school at noon on Thursday, October 23, 2026, and charged with two counts of felony child abuse without great bodily harm over allegations that he violently handled a 6-year-old student in his classroom a week earlier. According to the arrest affidavit, a paraprofessional in Adkisson’s Emotional and Behavioral Disorders classroom witnessed him forcefully pull a toy from two arguing students, push one child out of the way, grab a 6-year-old by the arm in a “rough, slinging motion” that swung the child’s body through the air, and then pin the same child behind a desk against a wall until the boy cried that he could not breathe. The arrest was the second of a Flagler County school teacher on child abuse charges in a single week, and it triggered an escort off campus, a state child-abuse hotline referral chain, and a $5,000 bond.
Background Information
Adkisson’s Flagler Schools career is itself part of the story. He taught at Bunnell Elementary between 2023 and May 2025 and did not return there, then was re-hired as a special education teacher at Wadsworth in August 2025 — and had been the subject of an internal district inquiry last year, according to FlaglerLive, in addition to the internal investigation opened after the October 2026 arrest. The incident occurred on Friday, October 16, 2026, during free time in a self-contained ESE (exceptional student education) classroom, where students had been allowed to watch a movie or play; two students began arguing over a toy, and the paraprofessional, 20-year-old Isabella Boston, intervened first, trying lightly to pry the toy from the students when they refused to turn it over. After the incident was reported to school administrators, they escorted Adkisson off campus, notified the child’s parents and the Florida Department of Children and Families, and DCF’s referral to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office opened the Major Case Unit investigation that produced the arrest.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Charged, not convicted. Adkisson faces two felony counts of child abuse without great bodily harm; the allegations are untested and he is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. His attorney disputes the charges and says his client expects to be exonerated.
Per the affidavit and Boston’s account to investigators, Adkisson noticed the toy dispute, approached, and forcefully pulled the toy from the students’ hands; he then pushed one child out of the way as the child attempted to return to the table, and forcefully grabbed a student by the arm and moved him in a rough, slinging motion — “the force of the movement caused [the child’s] body to swing through the air,” Boston told investigators. Adkisson then yelled at the child, “telling him he was acting like a two-year-old and needed to go to his designated area,” per the affidavit; the child became visibly upset, crawled under a desk, and cried and yelled, flinching when Adkisson approached. Boston reported that Adkisson then pinned the child behind the desk, with one of the child’s legs “trapped between Adkisson’s leg and one of the desk legs, restricting his ability to move”; before releasing him, she heard the child crying and telling Adkisson he was hurting him and could not breathe, and said Adkisson eventually released the student, told him he was not hurt, and walked away. The affidavit also records a separate allegation from the student himself: that Adkisson struck both sides of his stomach with closed hands, picked him up and moved him to the back of a line after he skipped ahead of classmates. Adkisson declined to speak with detectives during the investigation.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The arrest drew an unusually full public exchange between the sheriff and the defense. Sheriff Rick Staly said, “Parents entrust teachers to provide a safe learning environment for their children. Some special needs students can be challenging but everyone who works with these children must always keep their cool… Abuse of any kind, especially at the hands of a trusted adult, will not be tolerated.” Defense attorney Josh Davis disputed the charges outright: “We dispute these charges and my client fully expects to be found innocent of any wrongdoing,” writing that there were multiple adult and child witnesses, that FCSO spoke to only one paraprofessional and a child under 7, and that “an adequate investigation would’ve revealed what actually happened.” Davis also disputed that the student is special needs, and closed with a counter-accusation aimed at the institutions: “How many teachers have to be arrested? How many lives have to be ruined in this county before the schools are held responsible?… I will speak with the St. Attorney before the charges are filed and request a thorough investigation. I have no doubt that once this is done, Mr. Adkisson will be exonerated of all charges.” FlaglerLive verified with the superintendent that Adkisson was teaching in a self-contained ESE classroom, while noting privacy laws prevented any statement about a specific student.
Current Status
Adkisson was booked into the Flagler County jail after his noon arrest Thursday and released on $5,000 bond set at first appearance. A district spokesperson told WESH 2 News that Adkisson is currently on administrative leave from Wadsworth Elementary, and he is under internal district investigation in addition to the criminal case. The two felony counts are allegations; formal filing by the State Attorney’s Office — the step Davis says he will contest before it happens — and any trial remain ahead. Adkisson is represented by Josh Davis, and no plea has been reported.
Impact on Their Career/Life
A 28-year educator by his attorney’s count, Adkisson’s career now hinges on charges he calls false: an arrest on campus, an administrative leave, an internal investigation, and a felony case that — whatever its outcome — lands a teacher known as “Mr. A” at the center of the second child-abuse arrest of a Flagler teacher in a week, following the Matanzas High substitute teacher charged in a separate case days earlier. The disputed facts are narrow and stark — a toy, a sling, a desk, a child saying he couldn’t breathe — and they will be tested against the testimony of one adult witness and one child if the case reaches trial. For the district, the case re-opens the question FlaglerLive framed in its headline: how a teacher with a prior internal inquiry came to be re-hired into a self-contained special-needs classroom months later.