Video of student slapping Parkland High School teacher shows us what our teachers deal with every day (2024)

Say what you will about cellphones 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 teenage boy — slapping a teacher who was seated in a chair in a corner of the classroom.

The teacher, whether shocked or preternaturally calm, responded by asking “You think that affected me …?”

If it did, the teacher didn’t show it. Not even after a second blow, an open-handed slap, sent glasses flying.

You think that affected me?

The teacher was calm.

The same can’t be said of the general public.

The optics matter

In the video, after the first slap, the violence escalated.

The student asked the teacher “Want me to hit you again?” a few times before the second blow connected.

The boy then turned and continued his tirade, launching a profanity while walking away. “Ain’t nobody coming … (you) just got slapped. Go back to teaching.”

In the background, other students acted like kids.

Shocked oohs and aahs could be heard.

One kid gasped “Oh my God.”

Someone gave a nervous laugh.

As soon as the video was shared on social media, a viral firestorm kicked up.

Officials with the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools issued a statement saying that they were aware of the incident and looking into it.

Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough weighed in, too.

“This sheriff’s office is aware, and, like many of you, we have seen the video that has made its way around the community (Monday),” 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.

Slapping a teacher hard is assault.

Period.

Full stop.

Criminal charges were a foregone conclusion. Indeed, the boy was charged with two counts of misdemeanor assault Tuesday morning.

His case will remain in juvenile court, too. Defendants under 17 are only eligible to be treated as adults if they are charged with a felony.

As for school officials, though privacy laws preclude saying what decisions they reached, administrators have already worked through the available punishments — suspension, expulsion, etc. It’s reasonable to expect that it will be discussed at Tuesday night’s meeting of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education.

“This behavior will not be tolerated,” said Superintendent Tricia McManus. “At no time is it acceptable for students to put their hands on a teacher in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools. My focus now is on making sure that our teacher is taken care of and has the support needed to navigate through the lasting effects of this incident.”

The optics matter to school officials as well.

Cheap political points

Beyond those initial official first-steps, no one should be shocked that politics has reared its head.

As the video went locally viral, the conservative Moms for Liberty group saw it as a chance to push its agenda by advertising a town hall that it’s billing as “Giving Parents a Voice” in the WSFC Parent Support group

That quickly drew a rebuke.

“I am not sure this is an appropriate opportunistic response,” wrote Lori Farrington, a member of that Facebook group. “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.)”

The assault at Parkland Monday is not an isolated event. WS/FCS officials reported more than three dozen assaults on school personnel, not all of them serious, in a report required under state law.

Anyone care to wager how quickly — and how loudly — the crescendo for increasing the number of school vouchers will crank up?

Or when somebody trots out the tired notion of arming teachers?

It’s no surprise that the video was shared hundreds of times within a few hours.

Yes, the 38-second video is hard to watch. It offends and disturbs.

Avoiding it is not the way to go, though.

Watch it.

Not out of any lurid sense of morbid curiosity. Rather, to understand what we ask of classroom teachers.