Quite a few Blaze News readers reacted with interest to a recent story of ours about a Georgia high school student who was caught on cellphone video punching a teacher in the face.
Sadly, that’s not exactly a new phenomenon in our society any more, as more and more students appear emboldened not only to talk back to their teachers and verbally abuse them — but also to physically attack them.
‘The sad part about it is that teachers are being treated like that every day. They’re being assaulted, abused, and something needs to be said about it.’
Meanwhile, teachers have their hands tied. What can they do? Do the victimized teachers simply allow students to pummel them to pieces as they suffer busted-up faces, broken bones, and missed work time as well as ongoing mental and emotional trauma?
Or do they — literally — fight back?
That’s what the teacher did in the recent Blaze News story noted above. As onlookers in the hallway in Martin Luther King Jr. High School let out an approving holler in unison after the student let the punch fly, the irate teacher was seen on video hitting his attacker with a punch of his own. Two of them, actually.
With that, two other males — one wearing a gray hoodie and the other wearing a white hoodie — go after the teacher and knock him to the floor. By this point, the frenzied students are behaving as if they’re watching a UFC match. The teacher gets up again, and there’s a little bit of pushing and shoving, but that’s where the 45-second clip ends.
The DeKalb County School District said in a statement that several students reportedly initiated the physical fight with the teacher, and WXIA-TV reported that three students were charged with battery and disrupting public school while the teacher in question was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.
In the aftermath, Superintendent Devon Horton said the trio of brawling students should not be “criminalized.”
But what about the teacher? At present, his fate has not been made pubic.
The following are some examples of what happens when fed-up teachers fight back against students who cross the line and physically attack them.
14-year-old student hits 64-year-old teacher with basketball amid argument — and hits him with racial slurs, too. Teacher arrested after punching, beating on student. But a year later, DA has change of heart.
Marston Riley’s last day teaching at Maywood Academy High School in the Los Angeles area was Nov. 2, 2018 — but Riley, then 64 years old, didn’t depart by choice.
On that day, Riley — a music teacher — asked a 14-year-old male student to leave the classroom for not wearing a proper uniform. The student in question allegedly refused, KTLA-TV reported. Cellphone video shows the boy swearing at the teacher and repeatedly calling Riley, who is black, the N-word.
The student also is seen throwing a basketball at Riley, after which the station said Riley pulled out his cellphone to call for backup.
“C’mon, bro,” the student is heard saying. “Walk the f**k back [N-word].” Riley does walk back, and video shows the student continue the verbal barrage, including calling Riley a “bitch” and challenging him: “I’m right here, bro. Everybody watching, my [N-word]. What’s up?”
Riley warns the student several times, “You better leave” — and a minute and a half after video of the confrontation started, the teacher is seen suddenly punching the boy in the face. The student attempts to defend himself and moves backward to the far edge of the classroom as Riley delivers another blow and knocks him down. The student gets up, drops his backpack, and squares off. Riley then delivers what appear to be at least another dozen or so punches and goes after the kid again after others attempt to intervene.
Staff dragged away the boy who started the confrontation, and he was taken to a hospital, where he was treated for moderate injuries and released, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing the sheriff’s department.
Riley was arrested Nov. 2 on suspicion of child abuse and causing great bodily injury on a child, KTLA reported, and he was released the next morning after posting $50,000 bail, the Times said. But all the students who spoke to the station hours after the fight were sympathetic to Riley and said the student in the video pushed him too far. In fact, one student told the station it was a setup: “Everything was planned out. There were students there who were already taking out their phones to record the incident. I don’t think it’s completely fair that they’re just putting the blame all on [Riley], when I personally know that he’s a good guy.”
What’s more, a GoFundMe page a fellow school district employee set up for Riley to assist with legal fees eventually topped $190,000.
In a 2020 interview, Riley told KCAL-TV he retired before the district handed down a punishment; the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office a year after the fight dismissed the case against Riley, NBC News said.
In the TV interview, Riley said people have to know about the continuous abuse teachers endure: “The sad part about it is that teachers are being treated like that every day. They’re being assaulted, abused, and something needs to be said about it.”
You can view a video report here that includes clips of Riley’s fight with the student as well as the 2020 follow-up interview with Riley.
Angry student bumps teacher, steps on her foot. Teacher explodes, punches student — and gets charged and jailed. Not long after, however, authorities are singing a very different tune.
A Maryland high school teacher was charged and jailed in November 2019 after cellphone video recorded a fight between the teacher and an angry 17-year-old female student, who started things by bumping Vivian Noirie and stepping on her foot in a Largo High School classroom.
With that, Noirie started punching the student, who police said was angry at the teacher for contacting the student’s parents the night before. Other school employees separated the teacher and the student, after which the student struck Noirie.
Noirie, 36, was charged with physical child abuse and second-degree assault and was locked up in the Prince George’s County jail from Nov. 15 until Nov. 18. However, a lawyer for Noirie said students had assaulted the teacher three times already.
Prince George’s County Education Association President Theresa Mitchell Dudley defended Noirie, saying that “what response comes from administration when you call the office and ask somebody to come up because a student is stalking you in your classroom, that’s a whole other conversation that we need to have.”
Dudley added in a later statement that “there is an issue of a lack of respect for educators. Verbal and physical assaults on educators are too common. There is a sense that as an educator we should continue to keep taking abuse, threats, and assaults from students, parents, and administrators because we are the adults in the room. … Educators are human and need the same emotional and mental supports as students to ensure that situations are appropriately addressed. …”
But by the following January, charges were dropped against Noirie, the Associated Press said. Dudley told the AP that cellphone video of the altercation shows the student was “clearly the aggressor” and that Noirie never should have been charged.
You can view a video report here about the incident, which includes blurred clips of the fight; the video report was published before charges against Noirie were dropped.
Substitute teacher’s head left bloody in chair-throwing fight with middle schoolers caught on video. Official says students attacked first in classroom fracas.
A substitute teacher at a Dallas-area school was left bloody and required medical assistance after a chair-throwing fight with students caught on video in March 2022. The fight occurred at DeSoto West Middle School, police said, and a DeSoto ISD representative told WFAA-TV students attacked the teacher first.
Craig Miller — a school safety consultant and former Dallas ISD police chief — told KDFW-TV that legal action likely will be taken in this incident. “[The student will] face serious assault charges based upon the angle that I saw in the video,” Miller added to the station. “It could very well be an aggravated assault, which also then could be enhanced, possibly because it happened to an educator in a school environment.”
Miller also told KDFW the teacher in this case likely has the right to defend himself but that the video doesn’t tell the entire story of what took place, particularly what led to the incident. You can view video of the fight here.
Battery warrants obtained for 3 high schoolers after video shows teacher getting physically attacked. Student actually throws chair at teacher, who fights back against student who repeatedly shoves him.
A fight between a Warren Easton Charter High School teacher and three students in early October 2023 was caught on video and soon went viral, WWL-TV reported. The teacher first approaches a student, after which the student pushes the teacher away three times, the station says.
With that, the teacher grabs the student, and the pair begin to fight. Then a second student hits the teacher with a chair and then throws the chair at the teacher.
Arrest warrants were obtained for three juveniles on charges of simple battery, the station said. You can view a report about the incident here.
Entitled student gets physical with substitute teacher who took her phone. But teacher fights back — and a knock-down, drag-out brawl ensues.
Video sent to WRAL-TV shows a North Carolina substitute teacher and a juvenile student arguing over the phone in a Rocky Mount High School classroom in April 2023. The student appeared to attempt to grab the phone from the teacher’s hand, after which the teacher shoved the student away. With that, the student took a swing at the teacher with her right arm — and then the brawl began.
The teacher soon brought the student to the floor, threw a few punches, and pinned the screaming student while hollering for someone to get another teacher into the classroom. Soon after, the teacher and student both were charged with simple assault, WTVD-TV reported.
The teacher reportedly quit the profession in the aftermath and defended her actions; months later she reportedly was found guilty of misdemeanor simple assault. It isn’t clear what happened to the student.
HS student who apparently believes he’s invincible challenges substitute teacher, ‘What’s up, boy?’ — and even gets in teacher’s face while bumping, shoving him. Furious teacher finally has enough.
Cellphone video was rolling when a student began fighting a substitute teacher in a classroom at Golden Valley High School in Merced, California, in March 2023, KMPH-TV reported.
The station said video shows a student approaching the teacher and asking him, “What’s up, boy?” and getting in the teacher’s face and shoving him. Soon the teacher throws a clipboard at the student, the station said, after which the student begins throwing punches at the teacher. KMPH said it appears the teacher tried to hold the student in a headlock until the student surrendered.
Merced Union High School District told the station it has investigated the incident and can’t provide further details due to privacy laws. You can view cellphone video here that shows the altercation.
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Education, Physical attack, Teachers fighting students, Students fighting teachers, Violence in schools, Self-defense, Fighting back, T3, When students physically attack teachers, Arrests, Crime
