A substitute teacher at a Dallas-area middle school was left bloody and needed medical assistance after a chair-throwing fight Wednesday w...
A substitute teacher at a Dallas-area middle school was left bloody and needed medical assistance after a chair-throwing fight Wednesday with students caught on video — and a school district official said the students attacked the teacher first.
What are the details?
DeSoto Independent School District canceled all classes Friday in the wake of the incident, sending students on spring break early, WFAA-TV reported. The fight occurred at DeSoto West Middle School, police said.
Several videos of the fracas have surfaced online. One shows a student throwing a chair at the male teacher, and the chair appears to hit the teacher's head. The teacher responds by throwing two chairs at the student, and then the teacher goes back to a desk, sits down, and wipes blood from his head:
Another video shows only the teacher throwing the chairs but apparently from a different angle. The clip also offers a clearer picture of the chaos in the classroom.
Content warning: Language:
A DeSoto ISD representative told WFAA students attacked the teacher first, resulting in an injury to him that required intervention of paramedics who were called to the scene and treated the teacher in the school.
The station said the district refused to comment further regarding what sparked the incident, whether police detained any students, or whether any students may be punished.
DeSoto police haven’t said if criminal charges will be filed against anybody, KDFW-TV reported.
One expert's opinion
Craig Miller — a school safety consultant and former Dallas ISD police chief — told KDFW 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.
"There's a cause and effect, and I think that the school had to look at the response by the teacher. I mean, certainly, that's a part of it," he added to the station. "I know that if you watch that video, we all say, ‘That's exactly what I would do as well.’ But I think it's important for us to kind of take a step back. We’re the grownups in the room. Did we need to do that? Did that person have to do that to continue to defend themselves? And that's a part of this."
Anything else?
KDFW said school staff was instructed to come in Friday to review district policies and that when students return March 21, every school will have staff monitoring hallways and common areas and students won't be allowed to use cell phones, earbuds, or headphones during the school day.
What's more, the station said, each campus will have a mandatory safety and security meeting with parents, and the district will create a dress code review committee to make a proposal to the board ahead of the next school year.
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