Florida High School Football Coach Arrested After Altercations with Students

In a troubling series of events, Jamir Clarke, a 29-year-old assistant football coach at Blanche Ely High School in Florida, was arrested following physical altercations with multiple students. The incidents have raised serious concerns about student safety and appropriate conduct from school staff. Clarke, who stands at 6-foot-7 and weighs approximately 400 pounds, allegedly confronted one of his players during practice about a negative social media post concerning someone he knew. When the student admitted to making the post, witnesses report that Clarke called the student a derogatory name before striking him. This initial altercation quickly escalated as teammates came to the student’s defense, resulting in what one anonymous student described as Clarke “throwing punches at everybody.” During the melee, additional students were struck, including one who was simply attempting to break up the fight. This alarming incident resulted in property damage to the school’s weight room and left multiple students traumatized.

The aftermath of the incident revealed a disturbing pattern of behavior. When Broward Sheriff’s deputies arrived at the school, they found Clarke sitting alone in the darkened weight room with the door locked. The coach was taken into custody and charged with four counts of child abuse without great bodily harm. While Clarke claimed he was acting in self-defense, prosecutors painted a different picture during his court appearance. Prosecutor Eric Linder argued that Clarke’s imposing physical size, coupled with his failure to use his position as a coach to de-escalate the situation, made him a risk to the students under his supervision. Clarke was eventually released on a $30,000 bond but remains under house arrest with GPS monitoring as legal proceedings continue. If convicted on all four counts of child abuse, Clarke could face up to five years in prison for each charge, potentially resulting in a 20-year sentence.

Perhaps most concerning is that this wasn’t an isolated incident. During the investigation, it came to light that Clarke had been involved in another violent confrontation with a student at a different school just weeks earlier. Disturbing footage obtained by local media shows Clarke, who was working as a campus monitor at Monarch High School in Coconut Creek, engaging in a physical altercation with a student inside a school bathroom. The video appears to show Clarke as the aggressor, swinging and punching the student. The Broward County Public Schools district stated they were unaware of this previous incident until after Clarke’s arrest at Blanche Ely High School, raising questions about the effectiveness of the district’s hiring procedures and communication protocols between schools.

The school district has taken immediate action following these revelations. In a letter to parents, Broward County Public Schools announced that Clarke is no longer coaching at Blanche Ely High School and is being reassigned while the incidents are reviewed “for further action, up to and including termination.” The district emphasized that “the safety and well-being of our students is our number one priority” and expressed that they were “deeply disturbed” by the incidents. Clarke had only been employed with the district since December 2024, making the quick succession of violent incidents particularly troubling. Parents and community members have questioned how someone with apparent anger management issues was hired for positions involving direct supervision of students at two different schools.

The community reaction to these incidents has been one of shock and outrage. Parent Shaka Williams expressed dismay after viewing the video footage from Monarch High School, stating, “The video I saw is him being the aggressor and it was terrible.” Williams emphasized that adults working with young people should demonstrate greater patience and self-control, noting that while teenagers can be challenging, “putting your hands on a kid is never OK.” The sentiment was echoed by students, including Isaiah Robinson, who claimed he wasn’t surprised by the allegations given Clarke’s “history” of such behavior. The incidents have sparked broader conversations in the community about the vetting process for school employees and the measures in place to protect students from potentially dangerous staff members.

These disturbing events highlight critical issues in school safety protocols and staff oversight. The fact that Clarke was able to move from one school to another after a violent incident, only to repeat similar behavior weeks later, points to potential systemic failures in communication and background monitoring. The cases also raise important questions about de-escalation training for coaches and other school personnel who work closely with adolescents. As the legal process unfolds, the Broward County school community is left grappling with the aftermath of these traumatic events and seeking assurances that stronger safeguards will be implemented to prevent similar incidents in the future. Meanwhile, the affected students must process their experiences and rebuild their sense of safety within their educational environment – a fundamental right that was severely compromised by the very individual tasked with their mentorship and protection.