A Nashville high school student went viral after a video of her pepper-spraying her teacher hit the internet.
The teacher confiscated her cellphone during class, and she promptly responded by pulling out her mace and spritzing it in his face.
School officials state the girl has been disciplined appropriately for the offense. However, because she is a minor, many wonder what that means.
Footage captured on Friday, May 5, picks up with the teacher running out of the classroom while the unnamed Antioch High School student in a tight tube dress and midriff denim jacket follows him out of the door.
One person on Reddit wrote that the student’s phone was “taken away because she was texting and googling answers for her schoolwork.”
A voice, presumably the classmate filming the encounter, says in shock at her attack, “Oh mace? Mace is crazy. Naw, mace is crazy.”
As the class laughs while the situation unfolds, the person filming on his cellphone runs out of the class to see what else might happen.
The student was insistent that he had taken her phone and she wanted it back. As he walked into the school hallway, she sprayed him again, bringing him to his knees. While he is still discombobulated and kneeling on the floor, she reaches in, repeating, “Give me my phone. Can I get my phone? Can I get my phone?”
Another teacher tried to intervene, but the student tells this teacher, “I need my phone.”
The teacher tries to separate himself from the student saying, “She just pepper-sprayed me.”
Her classmates react, saying, “Over the phone is crazy.”
The video ends after another school worker cautiously approaches her.
This is one of many recent altercations where students attack their teachers while on campus.
In April 2023, one student in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, fought her substitute teacher over her cellphone. The teacher withheld the student’s phone and kept it longer than she did the other students. As a result, the student reached in for her device, brushing against the teacher. When the teacher pushed the student away, the teen swung at her and started the fight.
Earlier in May 2023, a Texas assistant principal was out of work after she was allegedly assaulted by students at the high school where she works. Reports say she was beaten so badly she was unable to speak, experienced “excruciating head pain,” and needed to get a CT scan.
The teacher in the Antioch altercation has been a victim of student-involved violence before. Earlier in the semester, in March, he was punched in the face after taking another student’s mobile device away as the student reportedly was using it to cheat while taking a test.
It is against school policy in Nashville for students to use their cellphones in school during instructional periods. Students are allowed to have them during lunch and passing periods but not while in class.
Student-involved violence is not the only thing teachers have to worry about while working in the modern-day classroom.
A 2022 Gallup poll notes that teaching is actually one of the most stressful professions in America, causing rapid burnout.
“You want what’s best for your students while also wanting what’s best for yourself,” Loren Johnson, who has taught in the Atlanta area, wrote on Facebook. “Educator anxiety is a thing so pray for y’all teacher, admin, and counseling friends.”
Little is known about if and how the Antioch student was disciplined for pepper-spraying her teacher or whether she is facing a criminal prosecution. However, according to Fox 17, Metro Nashville Public Schools said in a statement the girl’s actions represent “a serious violation of law and our school policies, and the student involved has received appropriate disciplinary consequences.”
According to Tennessee state law, pepper spray is considered a weapon. So people on social media believe this should be an automatic expulsion for bringing a weapon to school.
“The kid needs to be held liable. No question. If your kid thinks that they’re mature and responsible enough to carry something for self defense, then they got to get punished for using said weapon outside of self defense,” AbbreviationsFluid73 wrote.
By Monday, May 8, the altercation was filed by the school resource officer and is now being investigated further by authorities.
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