HOUSTON – Classrooms are supposed to be where learning takes place, not where students punch teachers in the face. But that's exactly what happened Thursday inside a classroom at Spring ISD's Westfield High School.
Local 2 obtained a short video clip of the student punching the teacher. It's a move that got the young man arrested; he's now facing charges.
"No respect -- none," said mother Syreeta Hairston, who has a freshman attending Westfield. "I don't know why but these kids have zero respect."
Spring ISD confirmed the incident happened Thursday. Local 2 spoke to the teacher by phone, who hours after the incident was still undergoing tests at a hospital. He told Local 2 the sharp right hook seen in the video was the last of at least seven punches the student hit him with.
He said it started when the student refused to take a test and tried to leave the classroom. The teacher said when he told him to stay, the student cursed at the teacher and hit him several times. The teacher said he left the classroom to inform the principal; when he returned to the classroom to tell the teen the principal was coming, the student is then seen hitting the teacher one last time. A number of students can be heard pleading with the young man to stop.
People that Local 2 showed the video to said they were stunned.
"I don't know what has to happen for them to realize you cannot talk to or react to an adult like that," said Hairston. "You can't do it."
"Parents these days, they're worried about (shoes) and what they can get for their kids, so they can be fly like the next kid, instead of instilling in them respect," said Houston resident Emanuel Ambo. "And that right there, what I just saw, was utter disrespect."
The teacher told Local 2 that he went to the hospital with serious pain to his head. He was awaiting the results if a CT scan when Local 2 last spoke to him. He said he's taught the boy on a regular basis and has had trouble with his behavior before, including using profanity in the classroom.