Teachers at a school reacted with horror to a video of their middle-aged colleague being repeatedly punched in the face and abused by a student.
The teen was arrested after a classmate filmed the profanity-laced physical attack at Parkland High School in North Salem, North Carolina.
The teacher sits motionless in the classroom as the student punches her with his right hand on the cheek before stepping back and demanding, “Do you want me to punch you again?”
“I don’t want it,” she responds before he repeats his demand and hits her again, this time with his left hand.
District Attorney Jim O’Neill said he had no authority to prosecute the bully as an adult for his assault on the teacher who has stunned investigators with her resistance.
Phones are slammed at Parkland High School in North Carolina as the student attacks his teacher in class, towering over her and delivering a series of punches.
The middle-aged teacher sits impassively as the student punches her in the face again, sending her glasses flying off her face.
“I still see it in my head,” Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough said. “I’m surprised you came to work today.”
A safe custody order was issued Tuesday for the boy on one count of communicating threats and two counts of misdemeanor assault.
Prosecutor Jim O’Neill said he could not be charged as an adult because the charges only amount to a misdemeanor and cannot be brought to a higher court.
But he warned students that they face the same consequences for attacking teachers as they do for attacking police officers.
“We are here to make sure you are never attacked when you go to work,” he said at a news conference.
‘We want to remind people that if you put your hands on a teacher, it’s the same as if you put your hands on one of these officers.
“The prosecution will bring the weight of this office to bear on you, so you should fear the consequences.”
More than a million people have viewed footage of the attack after it was uploaded by the student’s classmate, despite the school’s attempt to prevent it from being shared.
It is not known if the full extent of the attack was captured in the video that begins with the student taking his first punch.
His classmates can be heard laughing in the background as the student returns to his seat while mocking his victim: “No one is coming,” he boasts.
The school in North Salem wrote to parents about the “disturbing interaction” and asked them not to share the video.
The burly student repeatedly insults and abuses the educator as he towers over the middle-aged woman sitting in the corner of her classroom.
The second blow sends her glasses flying off her head and leaves her brushing her hair out of her face as the attacker glares at her.
“I told you I’m not going to play with you,” he shouts.
—Do you think that affected me in any way? —She asks with resignation as he heads to the back of the classroom.
Another student is heard laughing as he mocks her. “No one comes,” he boasts. ‘They just slapped you. Go back to teaching.’
Tripp Jeffers, a former colleague of the Parkland educator, described her as a “wonderful teacher.”
‘This is shocking to the core. No educator should be treated this way.”
But the school district recorded 46 incidents of students assaulting school staff in the last academic year.
‘I wasn’t afraid of the students. I never felt threatened by them in any way and I really enjoyed my time teaching there,” said Kisha Wall-Freeman, who taught there from 2012 to 2019.
District Superintendent Tricia McManus said she recommended the student’s expulsion, but District Attorney Jim O’Neill said he could not be tried as an adult.
But he said the worsening behavior had been exacerbated by more lenient discipline.
“They also hear their parents swearing and cussing,” she told WFMY.
‘I’ve seen that get progressively worse, even in stores or shopping centres. I hear it, I see it, and it wasn’t like that and 10 years ago it wasn’t like that.’
The school’s principal, Noel Keener, told parents that students will face “disciplinary action” for what she described as an “inappropriate and disturbing interaction.”
“We are working with district staff to address this immediately and ensure that behavior like this is not tolerated in our school and district,” he wrote in a letter.
“When you see a concerning post or text on social media, remember to report it, not repost or share it.”
District Superintendent Tricia McManus said she would recommend the student’s expulsion when the school board discusses the attack.
“My goal now is to ensure that our teacher is cared for and has the support necessary to overcome the lasting effects of this incident,” he added.
But Jenny Easter of the Forsyth County Educators Association described the response to the attack as a “travesty.”
“To be frank, the level of disrespect toward educators is one of the many reasons we have a major teacher exodus crisis in the state,” he added.
