What happens when you’re a school teacher who’s being verbally tormented by one of her students? You sock them in the face. Of course tell that to the authorities.
nydailynews: A Florida high school teacher arrested for allegedly punching a student won’t face charges, the St. Petersburg Times reported
The teacher is seen landing at least one punch to the student’s face – but weeks after she was arrested, prosecutors said the video doesn’t prove she wasn’t acting in self-defense.
“You can’t tell if he actually made contact, but it’s certainly reasonable to believe that it could have happened,” prosecutor Brian Trehy told the newspaper.
Hmm- define self defense.
In the video, Hadsock is heard saying “Step back right now!” before punching the student. “He pushed me,” she said afterwards as a girl says “Oh my God! He didn’t do anything. You can’t punch him in the face.”
“I didn’t touch her. You guys saw that, right? I didn’t touch her,” the red-headed student can be heard saying.
But that might not be what actually happened.
Students who witnessed the dramatic incident in Hadsock’s art class said that the student had landed the first punch on the 64-year-old teacher after he called her a variety of obscene names, according to reports at the time of her May 11 arrest.
All of which raises the question under what circumstances should a teacher be able to defend themselves, and how does one go about defending themselves if the need arises- especially if it’s disputable if any real force is used? After all it’s one thing to perhaps resist if struck or pushed against the wall, but another thing to then clench one’s fist and strike. And what about if it’s just a matter of the child grating on the teacher’s nerves- how long will it be before we tacitly approve a teacher from boxing the agregious student across the head. But then again with some students attending school with knifes and guns can we really fault a teacher fearing for their life? Which begs the bigger question – how did we end up with teachers and pupils physically confronting each other in the first place?
You might also be interested to know that this was the first time in 23 years of teaching that Hadstock has been disciplined. Let’s hope it’s her last.
Good for her, I say. He was clearly intimidating her and approaching aggressively, so it seems reasonable that she might strike out. It’s not like she’s a trained fight or anything (or else she wouldn’t have struck someone with bare knuckles; makes it hard to not break them). Too many kids feel so entitled to harass anyone they feel like because any minor physical reaction will result in thousands in a lawsuit. They feel safe.
She was acting diplomatically, even with her back against the wall. She didn’t react physically until he closed in on her. I would do the same, I’m sure. It’s fight or flight at that point, and, unluckily for the jerk harassing her, she’s a fighter.