High School Teacher Grabs Student's Hair, Won't Let Go in Viral Video
A teacher has been removed from the classroom after video emerged of him fighting with a student in the corridors of a school in Kentucky.
The teacher, identified as William Bennett, a science teacher at Marion C. Moore High School in Louisville, has been placed on "non-instructional duties" pending the outcome of the investigation, a Jefferson County Public Schools confirmed to WAVE.
A video of the altercation has gone viral after it was posted on social media earlier this week. During the clip, Bennett can be seen pinning the student on the floor as others attempt to pull him away from the teenager.
The boy appears to strike Bennett on the head while he is still on the ground. While other students and staff members try to prise the pair apart, the teacher grabs onto the boy's hair and pulls at it for around 30 seconds.
The teacher also appeared to launch a knee toward the Black student's face during the tussle.
Speaking to WDRB, 16-year-old Jamir Strane admitted he started the confrontation with the teacher after he criticized him using a bandana-style neck gaiter to cover his face in order to protect himself against COVID-19.
Strane is alleged to have struck the teacher before the physical altercation between the pair erupted.
"He said, 'You're just going to be another Black boy shot,'" said Strane. "I'm going to put it in English. He said that you're just going to end up in the streets dead, in my mind, like all my friends."
The teenager was actually injured in a drive-by shooting in 2020, and he says he has also lost a number of friends due to gun violence.
"To be told that you're just another boy that's going to be shot dead, I could see where that could trigger his PTSD," his mother, Erica Strane, added to WBRB.
"Like I said, my son—he's not a saint. He has his flaws. But, again, I can understand where the PTSD was triggered."
The student said the teacher should not have acted in the way that he did, even if he was aggravated by the 16-year-old.
"I look at that as getting revenge, because you didn't have no reason to keep pulling my hair," said Strane. "Even as a student is trying to pull you off of me, and you're still fighting me."
In a statement to The News Enterprise regarding the incident Renee Murphy, spokeswoman for Jefferson County Public Schools, said: "The matter involving the teacher is being reviewed.
"I can't give specifics about the investigation. I can tell you the teacher has been reassigned while the review is underway."
Strane has been charged with assault and suspended from school for 10 days in connection to the incident.
Bennett and Jefferson County Public Schools have been contacted for comment.
