Shocking moment student punches female teacher twice in the face while hurling profanities including “b****” and “n*****” at North Carolina high school
Teachers at a North Carolina school have reacted with horror to a video of their middle-aged female teacher being repeatedly punched in the face and abused by a male student while she sat in class.
The teenager has been arrested after a classmate filmed the attack at Parkland High School in North Salem.
The teacher sits motionless as the student lands a right hand punch to her cheek before stepping back and demanding: ‘Do you want me to hit you again?’
‘I don’t want it,’ she replies, before he repeats his demand and hits her again, this time with his left.
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 amazed investigators with her resilience.
Phones are buzzing at Parkland High School in North Carolina as student attacks his teacher in class, towering over her and receiving a series of punches
The middle-aged teacher sits passively as the student punches her in the face again, sending her glasses flying off her face
“I still see it playing in my head,” said Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough. ‘I’m surprised she even showed up to work today.’
A secure custody warrant was issued against the boy on Tuesday for one count of communication threats and two counts of assault.
DA Jim O’Neill said he could not be charged as an adult because the charges are only misdemeanors so they cannot be brought to superior court.
But he warned students they face the same consequences for attacking teachers as they would for assaulting police officers.
“We are here to see that you are never assaulted when you go to work,” he told a news conference.
‘We want to remind people that if you lay hands on a teacher, it’s the same as if you lay hands on one of these officers.
‘Public prosecution will bring the weight of this office down on you, so you should be afraid of the consequences.’
More than a million people have seen footage of the attack after it was uploaded by the student’s classmate, despite the school’s attempts to prevent it from being shared.
It is not known if the full extent of the attack was captured by the video, which opens with the student landing his first punch.
Fellow students are heard giggling in the background as the student steps back to his seat as he taunts his victim: ‘Nobody’s coming,’ he boasts.
The North Salem school wrote to parents about the ‘disturbing interaction’ and asked them not to share the video footage
The well-built student repeatedly curses and abuses the teacher while towering over the middle-aged woman sitting in the corner of her class.
The second blow sends her glasses flying off her head, leaving her brushing her hair out of her face as her attacker glares at her.
“I told you I’m not fucking playing with you,” he shouts.
“Do you think it affected me in any way?” she asks resignedly as he moves to the back of the classroom.
Another student is heard giggling as he taunts her.
“Nobody’s coming,” he boasts.
‘You just got beaten up. Go back to class.’
Tripp Jeffers, a former colleague of the Parkland teacher, 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 cases of students assaulting school staff in the last academic year.
‘I did not fear 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 between 2012 and 2019.
But she said the worsening behavior had been exacerbated by more lenient discipline.
“They also hear the swearing and bad language from their parents,” she told WFMY.
‘I’ve seen it get progressively worse, even just walking through the shops or in the malls. I hear it, I see it, and it wasn’t like that not even 10 years ago, it wasn’t like that’.
Headteacher Noel Keener told parents the students will face “disciplinary action” over 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,” she wrote in a letter.
“When you see a post or text that relates to social media, please remember to report it, not repost or redistribute it.”
District Superintendent Tricia McManus said she was recommended the student’s expulsion, but District Attorney Jim O’Neill said he could not be tried as an adult
District Superintendent Tricia McManus said she was recommended the student’s expulsion when the attack is discussed by the school board.
“My focus now is on making sure our teacher is cared for and has the support necessary to navigate through the lasting effects of this incident,” she added.
But Jenny Easter of the Forsyth County Association of Educators described the response to the attack as a ‘travesty’.
“The level of disrespect for educators, to be honest, is one of the many reasons we have a major teacher exodus crisis in the state,” she added.