Re’Kwon Smith, Las Vegas substitute teacher fights student who called him racial slur at Valley High School as both educator and teen pupil are arrested and charged.
A Las Vegas substitute teacher has been captured in surveillance footage fighting a high school student at a crowded school hall after the teen student allegedly calling him a racial slur.
Video posted on social media showed Re’Kwon Smith, 27, repeatedly punching the student who is thought to have called the educator, the n-word.
The use of the racial slur led to the substitute teacher and student embroiled in a verbal altercation only for the ‘dispute’ to turn physical when the student allegedly placed his hands on Smith.
Videos News 3 obtained show a fistfight between a suspected teacher and student in a hallway at Valley High School on Thursday. #LasVegas
MORE: https://t.co/umFA4lYb43 pic.twitter.com/3WLdpsO2tY— KSNV News 3 Las Vegas (@News3LV) April 25, 2024
Both teacher and student arrested
Video showed both Smith and the un-identified student throwing punches at one another before the pupil is knocked to the ground, KTNV reported.
After knocking down the unidentified student, Smith stood over him seemingly yelling as the student balled up and cowered behind his hands.
Smith remained hovering over the student, landing several more punches until a campus safety monitor and other students helped their classmate off the ground, according to Fox 5 Vegas.
The incident occurred in the cafeteria of Valley High School in east Las Vegas, Nevada on Thursday after the student allegedly called the teacher the n-word.
Smith, a substitute teacher with the Clark County School District since November 2023, was on assignment at the Valley High at the time of the altercation.
The incident led to both the teacher and student being arrested according to 8NewsNow.
Latest episode of physical confrontations between teachers and students
Local police confirmed Smith will be removed from the district’s substitute teaching pool and will no longer be eligible to teach in the district.
Sources told Channel 13 the student is recovering from the fight at a local hospital.
Valley High School principal Kimberly Perry-Carter told parents that the school was aware of the incident but that the ‘information is preliminary.’
‘Please know that CCSDPD is investigating the matter.
‘Once we have information to share we will be sure to update our community’ she added.
‘Violence in any form is unacceptable and goes against the fundamental principles of education and respect’ CCSD officials said in a statement on Thursday.’
Adding: ‘Any altercation between a teacher and a student is thoroughly investigated, and appropriate disciplinary action is taken.’
Smith now faces a spate of criminal charges including battery resulting in serious bodily harm, assaulting a school pupil on school property, threatening to do bodily harm to public school student, and interfering with a student from attending school, according to court records.
Smith is currently being held on $9000 bail at the Clark County Detention Center. He is due to appear in court on Friday.
Not immediately clear is what charges the student faced along with whether the teen would also face school disciplinary action.
Thursday’s incident is the latest in a series of violence between students and teachers in classrooms across the country.
Earlier this month, a North Carolina high school student was charged with assault after slapping his teacher twice across the face in a profanity-laced rant.
The rage-filled youngster, identified only as a ‘black’ minor, confronted the ‘white’ female educator inside a classroom at Parkland High School in Winston-Salem.
