Busy Tuesday ahead.
Say what you will about cell phones in classrooms, but a 38-second video taken in a classroom Monday at Parkland High School, while hard to watch, is nevertheless a must-see if you really care to know what we ask of teachers.
It opened with a student — a good-sized teen-aged boy — slapping a teacher who was seated in a chair in a corner of the room.
The teacher, whether shocked or preternaturally calm, responded by asking “You think that affected me …?
From there, the violence escalated.
Student in Parkland slaps teacher!!! pic.twitter.com/JWrPAcW5LN
— Bobby Johnson (@JussBlaze8) April 16, 2024
The student asks the teacher, “Want me to hit you again?” three times before striking the teacher in the face with an open hand, sending the teacher’s glasses flying.
The boy continued by launching a profanity-laced tirade while walking back to a desk. “Ain’t nobody gonna come … (you) just got slapped. Go back to teaching.”
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In the background, other students appeared to be acting like kids. Some oohed and aahed. Laughter can be heard. One kid, a girl, gasped “Oh my God.”
Predictably, as soon as the video was shared via social media — where else? — a viral firestorm kicked up.
Officials with the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools hunkered down by issuing a terse statement indicating that they were aware of the incident and looking into it.
Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough weighed in Monday evening, too.
Slapping a teacher hard is assault. Period. Full stop.
“This sheriff’s office is aware and like many of you we have seen the video that has made its way around the community today,” reads a written statement attributed to the sheriff. “Because it involves a juvenile we have not and will not discuss the particulars of the incident, but we will work collaboratively with those parties involved to determine the best course of action.”
Kimbrough was not — and will not — be the only person to voice strong opinions or make decisions.
Law-enforcement, specifically prosecutors, will determine if the boy is old enough to be charged as an adult and whether to ask a judge to do so. They may also have to decide whether the assaults qualify as hate crimes.
School administrators, too, likely are already working through the punishments available to them — suspension, expulsion, etc.
It’s reasonable to expect that it will be discussed at tonight’s meeting of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education.
And beyond those initial, first-step basics, no one should be shocked when politics enters the debate.
It already has.
As the video went locally viral, the conservative Moms for Liberty group saw it as an opportunity to advertise a town hall it's billing as “Giving Parents a Voice” in a public forum set up online.
And that quickly drew a reasoned and mild rebuke.
“I am not sure this is an appropriate opportunistic response,” wrote forum member Lori Farrington. “The majority of the people in this post are responding in a very supportive manner to a public school teacher who was hurt, unjustly, by a malicious student. You’re pushing an extremist agenda for privatization of education, for profit.
“Slow your (roll.)”
Anyone care to wager how quickly — and how loud — the crescendo for increasing the voucher system cranks up? Or until somebody trots out the tired notion of arming teachers?
Nothing good will happen by adding guns to schools. The only legitimate place for a weapon on campus is in the utility belts of school-resource officers.
No surprise that the video has been shared hundreds of times within a few hours. The commentariat cranked up, too, as is custom.
In some fetid corners, loaded code words — “those people” and “those kids” — popped up. Whatever happened to “our kids” and “our schools”?
Yes, the 38-second video is hard to watch. And watching it will offend and disturb.
Avoiding it — hiding from the truth — is no way to go. That’s why as awful as that classroom video is, no matter how isolated this incident may be, seeing it is a must.
Not for any lurid sense of morbid curiosity or to boost a political agenda. Rather, it’s essential in order to know what can happen in a public school and to understand what's asked of classroom teachers.
Greensboro posts video from fatal shooting
GREENSBORO — Speaking of disturbing video, the Greensboro Police Department released Monday videos from an officer-involved shooting 10 months ago.
Officer John Corrigan fatally shot 51-year-old Graham Thomas Roberson just after midnight on June 22 on Tuscaloosa Street.
Corrigan was cleared following an investigation by the SBI and a determination by the Guilford County district attorney that criminal charges were not warranted.
The videos, available on the city’s YouTube channel, show Roberson walking toward a police cruiser, transferring an object from his left hand to his right and then pointing it toward Corrigan.
A news release distributed by the district attorney’s office in February fills in the rest.
“Officer Corrigan stated he observed Roberson had a black handgun in his left hand and was wearing a blue glove, so he was able to see a black handgun against the blue gloves,” it reads.
Corrigan also told investigators that Roberson “quickly transferred the handgun from his left hand to his right hand and pointed the handgun at him.’’
Guns recovered at the scene were later determined to be a semi-automatic BB gun and a silver toy revolver.
Only God and Graham Roberson know what he was thinking when he raised a weapon at a police officer.
The videos provide certainty that a cop fearing his life was in danger had no other option but to defend himself.
For the rest of us, viewing them is instructive to understanding life-and-death decisions cops sometimes have to make in a matter of seconds.
Facing the truth, no matter how upsetting, is difficult. But always necessary.