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A high school teacher was pepper sprayed by one of his students after he confiscated her cell phone when she refused to put it away during class. In a video of the incident that has since gone viral, the teacher can be seen falling to his knees after being attacked a second time outside of the classroom.
But as Straight Arrow News contributor Adrienne Lawrence explains, it’s not just the student who was in the wrong.
The girl went to ten on her teacher, which he never should have let happen. From the video, it was clear that after demanding her phone back at least 20 times, this girl threatened to use pepper spray. That threat should have signaled to the teacher that the other students could be put in harm’s way. And they were when she sprayed him in a packed classroom.
Also, this same teacher was punched in the face a short time before by a student whose phone he also took away. So he was on notice that these kids have a very visceral response when you take away their lifelines.
And lastly, the teacher, blinded by pepper spray on his knees on the ground, still swung wildly so the student couldn’t grasp the phone when she reached for it. This said to me that the entire situation was about maintaining power and dominance.
Teachers do not have the necessary support and they are often unappreciated. Even so, de-escalation is an essential tactic that they have to have if they are going to be working with young people, especially those who put you on notice that they are going to engage in impending violence. While the young lady must face consequences and that teacher has to be smarter, these schools really need to fix their phone policies, because our society won’t fix the problems that make our country unsafe for our kids.
