
According to a 2022 EdWeek Research Center survey, 10% of K-12 public school teachers have been physically assaulted or attacked by a student. Meanwhile, the American Psychological Association reports that one in every five teachers who were assaulted did not report the attack to school administrators, indicating that the problem is much worse than we know.
It should come as no surprise then, that last Tuesday a male student at Parkland High School walked up to the front of his classroom and began shouting profanities at the female teacher who was seated at her desk. All of a sudden the student landed a hard slap to the right side of the teacher’s face. He then stepped back and asked if she wanted another slap. “I don’t want it,” she said. Nevertheless, the male student gave her another slap to the face which snapped her head back and to the left, knocking her glasses to the floor. “You think that affected me?” the teacher said. The student then danced back to the other side of the room shouting, “Ain’t nobody coming. You just got slapped. Go back to teaching.”
At least one student videotaped the confrontation while the others either said nothing or laughed, and none of them ran for help or came to their teacher’s aide. Soon afterward the male student was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor. In some ways, the charge itself is as disgusting as the crime.
If one researches the legal definition of assault and the category of crime to which it can apply, it is clear that an attack of the Parkland kind constitutes a felony because it was carried out against a “protected class,” which includes police officers, healthcare workers, judges, and teachers. But not here in good old North Carolina. In our state, if you’re under 17 and full grown, you can get away with assaulting a teacher and only be charged with a Class 1 misdemeanor. In other words what that male student did last week only constitutes a “simple assault.” Even worse, the young perp in question will now be tried in juvenile court, will probably serve a minimum sentence, and will then be released and put on probation. The blame for this miscarriage of justice lies squarely with section 14 of our state code.
The female Parkland teacher is to be commended for keeping her calm in the face of real physical violence, and she is lucky not to have endured serious injury. Had her nose been broken, however, then the assailant might have been charged with a felony. But it shouldn’t take a broken bone to send this student to an adult prison. The slaps he landed were hard enough to cause bodily harm, not to mention emotional trauma. Regardless of state statutes, what he did rises to the level of a felony.
And while I’m ranting about our local judicial system, let me also say that I’m sick and tired of having to refer to a young criminal as “student,” “assailant,” “male,” or “him.” This despicable student has a name, and it should have been published as soon as he was in custody. He hit like a man and he deserves to be exposed and tried as a man.
So where do we go from here? For one thing, we need to reform our state codes and make physical assault a felony for anyone over the age of 14. In addition, every high school classroom should be equipped with a wireless panic button that teachers can push to summon the SRO if a violent incident occurs. We also need to rethink the phrase “see something, say something,” to “see something, DO something.” The students in that Parkland classroom who sat back and laughed while the teacher was under attack, should be charged with aiding and abetting the assault.
Meanwhile, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland promised to convene task forces and launch investigations to solve the problem of teacher assaults, but that was three years ago, and the problem persists. And then there are some who say that we could prevent students from committing violent crimes if only there were more social workers assigned to schools. Michelle Jordan the magnet school coordinator at Brunson Elementary told the Winston-Salem Journal last week, “People aren’t born wanting to do what that young man did.” With all due respect to Ms. Jordan, while parental behavior, environment, and peer pressure play a role in turning a child to crime, I believe that some kids ARE born to do exactly what the Parkland student did, and no amount of counseling will cure him. Regardless, we don’t do people like him any favors by slapping him on the wrist. There is nothing simple about assault, and turning the other cheek doesn’t work for teachers or society.
There’s Nothing “Simple” About Assault on a Teacher
According to a 2022 EdWeek Research Center survey, 10% of K-12 public school teachers have been physically assaulted or attacked by a student. Meanwhile, the American Psychological Association reports that one in every five teachers who were assaulted did not report the attack to school administrators, indicating that the problem is much worse than we know.
It should come as no surprise then, that last Tuesday a male student at Parkland High School walked up to the front of his classroom and began shouting profanities at the female teacher who was seated at her desk. All of a sudden the student landed a hard slap to the right side of the teacher’s face. He then stepped back and asked if she wanted another slap. “I don’t want it,” she said. Nevertheless, the male student gave her another slap to the face which snapped her head back and to the left, knocking her glasses to the floor. “You think that affected me?” the teacher said. The student then danced back to the other side of the room shouting, “Ain’t nobody coming. You just got slapped. Go back to teaching.”
At least one student videotaped the confrontation while the others either said nothing or laughed, and none of them ran for help or came to their teacher’s aide. Soon afterward the male student was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor. In some ways, the charge itself is as disgusting as the crime.
If one researches the legal definition of assault and the category of crime to which it can apply, it is clear that an attack of the Parkland kind constitutes a felony because it was carried out against a “protected class,” which includes police officers, healthcare workers, judges, and teachers. But not here in good old North Carolina. In our state, if you’re under 17 and full grown, you can get away with assaulting a teacher and only be charged with a Class 1 misdemeanor. In other words what that male student did last week only constitutes a “simple assault.” Even worse, the young perp in question will now be tried in juvenile court, will probably serve a minimum sentence, and will then be released and put on probation. The blame for this miscarriage of justice lies squarely with section 14 of our state code.
The female Parkland teacher is to be commended for keeping her calm in the face of real physical violence, and she is lucky not to have endured serious injury. Had her nose been broken, however, then the assailant might have been charged with a felony. But it shouldn’t take a broken bone to send this student to an adult prison. The slaps he landed were hard enough to cause bodily harm, not to mention emotional trauma. Regardless of state statutes, what he did rises to the level of a felony.
And while I’m ranting about our local judicial system, let me also say that I’m sick and tired of having to refer to a young criminal as “student,” “assailant,” “male,” or “him.” This despicable student has a name, and it should have been published as soon as he was in custody. He hit like a man and he deserves to be exposed and tried as a man.
So where do we go from here? For one thing, we need to reform our state codes and make physical assault a felony for anyone over the age of 14. In addition, every high school classroom should be equipped with a wireless panic button that teachers can push to summon the SRO if a violent incident occurs. We also need to rethink the phrase “see something, say something,” to “see something, DO something.” The students in that Parkland classroom who sat back and laughed while the teacher was under attack, should be charged with aiding and abetting the assault.
Meanwhile, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland promised to convene task forces and launch investigations to solve the problem of teacher assaults, but that was three years ago, and the problem persists. And then there are some who say that we could prevent students from committing violent crimes if only there were more social workers assigned to schools. Michelle Jordan the magnet school coordinator at Brunson Elementary told the Winston-Salem Journal last week, “People aren’t born wanting to do what that young man did.” With all due respect to Ms. Jordan, while parental behavior, environment, and peer pressure play a role in turning a child to crime, I believe that some kids ARE born to do exactly what the Parkland student did, and no amount of counseling will cure him. Regardless, we don’t do people like him any favors by slapping him on the wrist. There is nothing simple about assault, and turning the other cheek doesn’t work for teachers or society.