Parents and staff at Miami Southridge Senior High are reeling after longtime teacher Rudolph Infante, 53, was arrested over the weekend on multiple battery-related charges tied to students. He is now facing a mix of misdemeanor counts and a serious felony allegation filed under Florida’s law that targets offenses against students by authority figures, while the South Miami Heights campus waits for more details from investigators.
Arrest and charges
According to WSVN, Infante has been charged with four counts of battery and one felony count classified as an offense against students by an authority figure. The station reports that investigators have not yet publicly laid out what is alleged to have happened, and school police are keeping a tight lid on any additional details. WSVN also notes that Infante remains behind bars while the criminal case moves through its early stages.
District response
In a statement given to WSVN, Miami-Dade County Public Schools said it was “deeply troubled” by the arrest and confirmed that it has “initiated employment termination proceedings and will ensure the individual is precluded from seeking future employment with Miami-Dade County Public Schools.”
The phrasing tracks closely with what the district has used after other recent employee arrests, signaling a now-familiar playbook: move swiftly to cut ties while law enforcement continues its work. School leaders, however, have not released any further public details about the investigation or the specific conduct alleged in this case.
What the law says
Florida Statute Section 800.101, which addresses “offenses against students by authority figures,” defines authority figures broadly to include school employees and others in positions of power over students. Certain violations can be treated as felonies with enhanced penalties. The law is designed to respond to situations where there is a clear power imbalance between staff and students, although how it applies in any given case depends on the facts prosecutors lay out. The full statutory language is available from the Florida Senate.
Local context
In recent years, Miami-Dade officials have taken a similarly hard line in other cases involving school employees and alleged misconduct with students. Staffers have been pulled from classrooms and placed into termination proceedings while criminal investigations are still unfolding, a pattern described by local outlets.
For instance, NBC6 detailed a May 2025 arrest in which the district used almost identical language about firing the accused teacher and blocking any future employment with the school system. That kind of repeat phrasing underscores how the district typically handles serious allegations that involve staff-student boundaries.
For now, the Miami-Dade Schools Police Department has not provided a fuller public account of the accusations against Infante. The next substantial updates are likely to come through court filings and future district briefings, which should shed more light on what exactly prompted the felony charge and the stack of battery counts.
