{"id":190916,"date":"2026-03-14T00:51:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T00:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/190916\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T00:51:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T00:51:11","slug":"florida-hs-teacher-arrested-months-after-driving-into-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/190916\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida HS teacher arrested months after driving into student"},"content":{"rendered":"

WINTER PARK, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Parents are demanding answers after a local teacher allegedly struck a student on a scooter, broke his back, and drove away, yet was allowed to keep his job right up until his arrest.<\/p>\n

According to investigators with the Casselberry Police Department<\/a>, 16-year-old Landon Cates was riding his scooter to school on December 11, 2025, when 49-year-old Benjamin Fottler, a teacher at Winter Park High School<\/a>, allegedly struck him and left him in the road with a broken back, bruises, and scratches.<\/p>\n

Authorities say Fottler did not stop at the scene and continued with his commute to work. <\/p>\n

See also: Woman killed in hit-and-run on I-95, lanes reopen after several hours<\/a><\/p>\n

When investigators questioned him, he said, “I thought it was a sign in the median while turning onto the highway,” without looking back to make sure that was the case.<\/p>\n

While police were able to link Fottler to the crash by matching damage on his car to the scene, the school district confirmed he still has his job.<\/p>\n

“It was just like, wow,” one parent told WFTV<\/a>. “He’s a sorry individual to do something like that and leave whoever he hit.” Others described the situation as “alarming,” noting that their own children are athletes at the school and traverse the same roads.<\/p>\n

Fottler was arrested on Tuesday and booked for a count of felony hit-and-run, although he was later released from jail on $20,000 bond, according to court records.<\/p>\n

The school district has not announced any change to his employment status as of Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WINTER PARK, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Parents are demanding answers after a local teacher allegedly struck a student on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-190916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}