Parents protest after Cocoa Beach teacher present during ‘white lie’ party with teenagers returns to classroom
Apr 15, 2025
COCOA BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) — Parents are outraged after a Cocoa Beach teacher, who was arrested after attending a house party with students, returned to the classroom. The district, however, is defending their decision.
Former elementary school principal, Elizabeth Hill-Brodigan, faces charges f
or child neglect, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and hosting an open house party.
Current teacher, Karly Anderson, is charged with disorderly conduct and disorderly intoxication.
Both adults were arrested after, authorities say, underage children were allowed access to alcohol under their supervision during a ‘white lie’ house party.
Anderson was seen on bodycam video coming up to officers, clearly upset. The encounter in January landed her in jail, but now, she’s back in the classroom.
Parents, however, were not pleased with the district.
On Monday morning before school, parents protested outside Saturn Elementary in Cocoa Beach.
“It’s ridiculous. It is absolutely ridiculous and uncalled for,” said Ashley Fernandez, who has a child at Saturn.
Ashley says students shouldn’t be around a teacher accused of attending a house party with alcohol, drugs, and underage students.
“I was livid because, honestly, the woman still hasn’t even gone to court,” she said. “This issue hasn’t been resolved at all, and so she has no place being inside of a school right now.”
Others are worried the relocation was hidden from the community.
“We’ll forget that anything ever happened,” said Liz Mikitarian, the founder of STOP Moms for Liberty. “We’ll forget that people were up in arms at the time, that a teacher and principal were involved, and we’ll just reassign her, and no one will know.”
The school district said Andersen was cleared of felony charges and cleared of child neglect accusations by the Department of Children and Families.
This allows her to be placed back into a classroom.
“I want to make sure that every parent at Saturn is aware,” said Ashley.
Parents are still pushing for the teacher to be taken out of the classroom. A group of parents said they plan to protest every day this week to ensure the district knows how frustrated they are with Andersen’s return to teaching. ...read more read less
