<p>From the video and her description, the much larger student was clearly threatening her. She was arrested and charged with a felony, but the charges were dropped after the police investigated. Some students testified on her behalf, and apparently the camera didn’t capture the entire incident. She has still not been reinstated.</p>
<p>I found this very upsetting. No one should have to work or go to school under these conditions. I wonder whether any action was taken against the student?</p>
<p>It is awful that a veteran teacher is being put in a situation where her job is at stake because a kid with a violent streak is being protected. The charges were dropped and the school district should place this teacher in a different school. I don’t think she should go back to this school because once kids know they could do something like this and get away with it, it could happen again. Teachers are not being respected as they should be. I am curious to learn if this was a kid with an IEP for emotional issues.</p>
<p>While I agree that the teacher should not be criminally charged, I think she made a bad decision by striking the student, regardless of what he said or did. She should have left the room and sought help.</p>
<p>From what she says, she is attached to the students at that school and wants to go back there. She has been teaching there for 22 years, and last year she was voted Teacher of the Year by the students. She is 64 years old, with a spotless record. I can’t believe that the school didn’t stand behind her.</p>
<p>She couldn’t have left the room. The student, who was a huge hulking man-sized kid, had her backed up against a wall. He was shouting obscenities at her.</p>
<p>He pushed her into the wall with his stomach in the video and that’s when she hit him. Prosecutors said it was self-defense and that looks like the correct call here. Furthermore another student had to restrain the unruly student.</p>
<p>The “kid” looked like he weighed about 250 pounds.</p>
<p>I am not disputing the threatening actions of the student, but to me there is some irony in the teacher’s response. At our school, bullied students are implored not to fight back when threatened or hit, rather they should exit the scene and seek help from an adult. If victims do fight back, they are suspended along with the bully. This teacher did not seem to follow the politically-correct protocol, is all. But I am on her side, regardless.</p>
<p>Threatened or hit is one thing but she was pinned to the wall. Coming up with a general policy is an exercise in futility. What do you do if someone has a hand on your throat and is choking you? You do whatever you have to to remove that hand. That should be instinctive.</p>
<p>I recognize that hindsight is 20-20, and when threatened, people will instinctively defend themselves in the way they deem necessary at the moment. With that in mind, I don’t believe the video depicts the student physically “pinning” her to a wall (and again, it looks like a door), meaning holding her in place with his hands or other body parts. She certainly was assaulted by his words and presence, but it looks to me as though she may have been able to run away without striking him, perhaps with a push.</p>
<p>My son is 6 ft 1 and 220 pounds and does a lot of weightlifting. I can’t push him anywhere that he doesn’t want to go. That teacher looks to be quite a bit smaller than me. Have you ever tried to move an object that weighs 250 pounds with a push?</p>
<p>Not an object, but a person, yes I have. My H hovers around that weight and I am about half his size, and yes! I actually pushed him over by accident once, but of course, he was taken off guard at the time.</p>
<p>On the other hand, BCEagle, I can’t imagine putting myself in the middle of a fist fight with a 250 lb young man. I think that would be placing my life at risk, given the discrepancy in size, age and experience.</p>
<p>I saw this on the Today Show and I thought the teacher was very credible.</p>
<p>I see something like this and I wonder how can anyone stand to be a teacher? An incident happens that would cause the most mild mannered of persons to snap and the school district just throws the teacher under the bus.</p>
<p>Even if you believe that her reaction was too much, and I’m not sure that is what I believe, I think she should be given the benefit of the doubt and reinstated.</p>
<p>She must have been terrified. I fully support her actions. They looked instinctive…just trying to save herself. Maybe she thought about the other kids in the room- leaving a raging person in with the “nice kids” could have been dangerous as well—
Has anyone heard if there were actions taken again this totally menacing student??? I am hoping he was expelled!!!</p>
<p>I’m wondering what made the student so angry. The teacher seems very mild-mannered, and from her record she is not a harsh or provocative person. I’m wondering whether he was on drugs, or otherwise impaired? </p>
<p>She’s lucky that the punch didn’t just make him angrier and more violent. I wouldn’t expect a 64-year-old woman to be able to do what she did. </p>
<p>I have my problems with teacher’s unions, but this is a good example of why they are needed.</p>
<p>I wondered about that too. The origin of the confrontation doesn’t seem to be reported anywhere. You can hear a female student say what sounds something like, “You can’t call him stupid.”</p>