video of teacher beating up student

I am in 100% agreement with this.

I watched the video, during all the "beating" scenes and see only one instance (second :59) where the teachers hand even came into contact with the student, as far as what would be considered a strike. Even then, it was not a whallop.

Watching the video, and quickly double clicking in order to get 7 or 8 different shots during any particular second I see the following. BTW, I went over the "action" seconds where strikes were supposed to have taken place, several times at 7 or 8 clicks a second to try to see every available angle.

at :32
This is where the action starts. I agree with dadpad that her stance, her pushing the desk, then kicking stuff out of the way, initially looks alarming. However, watching it at regular speed a couple of times, it does more look like posing, play threatening if you will.
The student, backing into the corner, had plenty of time to move away out of that corner, she did not jump on him. He had plenty of room also to move by her. His attitude too, of slumping to the floor, also looks fake to me.

between :32 and :37, she is pulling him by his legs. Large leg muscles that would not be hurt by pulling him over a smooth linoleum floor. She drags him about a foot or too, then does something that looks like she's trying to roll him over.

at :39 she starts to raise her arm, and when you watch it straight through, it appears she strikes him. However, when you watch that second several times, it becomes clear she made NO contact with him. That was during second :40.
The quality of the video is not that great, but during that second, and also the second where she is initially pulling him along the floor, it's impossible for me to tell if he is smiling/laughing, or something else.

at second :53, again when you watch it at normal speed, you see what appears to be a kick. Strange though that there seems to be no reaction from the boy at that second, being kicked.
Watching this one slowly, and about a dozen times, I cannot see, in stop frames, where her foot ever actually came into contact with him. What appears to happen is that she pulls back her foot/leg to deliver a kick, but instead of meeting the child, her foot contacts the floor with her sneaker, immediately stopping the foward action of her foot.

Again, at secod :55, I cannot make out what the expression on the child's face is...is it fear, or smiling/laughing?

The boy later says the teacher pulled him from the wall to hit his head against the wall. That is not what happened.

The mother, in talking about the big knot/bump on the boys head said that a week (or was it 2?) later she ASKED him "do you still have that lump on your head?"

She ASKED him?
She didn't feel for herself?

He said something like, that is was still there, but smaller.

Again, she didn't feel her son's head for herself, to compare what she remembered this lump to be when it was initially there?
Did she feel the lump when it supposedly first appeared? Does she have pictures, or a physicians documentation of the size of the injury? Was it documented in any way 1 or 2 weeks later if it was still there?

Really looking at this, and the fact that none of the children, except one that initially moves away at the beginning of the video, seem particular alarmed, not even moving off their places sitting against the floor, is telling.

This looks more like one of those staged professional wrestling matches, compared to a real fight.

I'm not saying definatively a beating didn't occur.
I'd like to see this video again using more sophisticated stop action devices.

If I was on a jury, I could not honestly say I saw this boy being hit.

Again, the only time I saw any contact was a second :59.

I don't consider pulling someone along the linoleum floor by the legs abuse.

I just went to watch it one more time, and it's been removed.

The video's been removed from Youtube for copyright infringement. You have to go to the TV station's website to see it:

http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/dpps/news/national/100510-video-of-teacher-beating-student-turned-over-to-sheriff%27s-office_7473289?obref=obnetwork

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/news/local/100514-teacher-caught-video-beating-sorry

(this is not directed at butterflynet - I just clicked on her post after I watched the video again).
Okay, well in the video that I just rewatched this woman flung a desk with books back across a room with great force. Obviously there were children back there. If that desk or those books hit any of those kids they might have been hurt.

Then she dragged the boy down the wall, he might very easily have bumped his head on the hard tile floor.
Then she was grabbing him on his bare shins - she might very well have scratched him.
I saw her kick him in the back.
I also saw her pulling on one of his legs with enough force to move a chubby thirteen year old boy across a floor- she could have pulled his hip out of the socket the way she was moving him.
She was pulling on both his arms with enough force to dislocate his shoulders.
I saw her make contact with what looked like forceful slaps and/or punches several times.

This woman was out of control and totally inappropriate - no matter what that boy had said or done.
She looks insane.
And maybe she is- she obviously feels it's okay to slit the tires of someone she doesn't like.

I don't agree that this was harmless at all.

Why should any kid have to go to a school where something like this might be engaged in by one of the teachers? Even if she thought it was funny or a joke...what ridiculously bad judgment she displayed over and over and over again.
And she's TEACHING these kids?

Thank god she's out of the classroom.

I agree with you, aidan. That person would not teach one of my own.

I'm glad she's out of the classroom.

She may have one day handed a student a piece of paper, and given them a paper cut.

I hope this physical education teacher never had to physically touch her students in physical education class. That would have been bad. She better not ever be caught teaching someone how to kick a soccer ball, by showing them how herself. Her foot might flip and she might kill them.

Pulling a kid a foot or two across a smooth linoleum floor. I'm amazed she didn't totally take his leg right off his body.
I certainly hope kindergarden teacher no longer play Ring Around the Rosie with their 5 year old students. If the teacher did that, she might accidently rip off a childs arm when "they all fall down"
Ditto for teaching kids how to play "Duck, Duck, Goose" Never mind the teacher might give any number of students a concussion when sneaking around behind them, tapping there heads saying "duck....duck.....duck....." In an overexcited state, she might tap too hard when finally picking out the "goose" and cave their skull in.

Aidan, if you watch closely, she doesn't make contact with the child with her "kicks and blows"

I'm not saying nothing happened.

I'm saying if I was on a jury I would have to watch a much slower version of that video to make up my mind.

I can't tell from this video, because none of us can see what happened before the filming started, if this was even an attack, but an agreeed upon joke between the 2 of them.

I would like to know what was going on before this filming. For all I know they could have been horsing around about a WWF smackdown.

I just do not know, and will not sit in judgement on the situation, until I know more.

What if they were practicing for a play, a scene in which she was directing the child in how to "act like they were beating someone up?"

"ok billie here's how you do it. Pull back like you're going to hit someone, but when you throw that punch, make sure you don't make contact with the other perons head, or that will hurt them. At the same time, you throw your head in the opposite direction, so it looks to the audience like I actually hit you."

In the first punch she threw at the kid, there is definately, positively, NO contact between her hand and his head. In fact, the instant her arm changed its direction from going up away from her, to towards him, he does actually move his head in the opposite direction.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but this picture is not showing anyone getting punched or kicked. It just simply does not show that.

At worst, it shows a woman dragging a perfectly healthy 13 year old at the maxium 2 feet at a time over the smooth floor, and rolling his body back and forth.

It would not be unbelievable to me that the mother learned of the video, wants to make a buck off the school system, and has told her child to say he was beaten.

I would love to be in the room when the child is questioned, so I could hear the entire story. Ditto for the teacher.


Question for you aidan.

Getting away from this video for a moment....really....let's make this unrelated....

You have a 13 year old, who comes home from school one day and says "today we learned about traction in science. First I laid down on a dolly with wheels, and the teacher took my legs and pulled me 2 feet. Then I laid down on the floor with no wheels. The teacher pulled me a couple of more feet by the legs, showing how there was more traction.

Would you say "OMG, he could have pulled your leg out of your hip socket! What was he thinking!"

Unfortunatley, life means having to occassionally making physical contact with other people. Even if you're a teacher.

Beyond the pulling the child along the floor, I saw no evidence the child was touched by being actually punched or kicked.

I want to hear what the adult, the teacher has to say. I want to hear what the other teachers have to say, and the students that were actually there.

Chai - I'm sorry- I watched this video again and she definitely makes contact when she kicks him as he's down on the floor - more than once, and in the back- she could have ruptured a kidney. To my eye, she makes contact when she pulls back and flails her arms around his face and head. I can't tell if her hand is open in a slap or closed in a fist - but she was swinging hard enough to hurt.

You can make any assumption you want about me and feelings about physical contact. No, I do not have a problem with ring around the rosie - but yes I do have a problem with an adult advancing on a cowering child and pulling him by his limbs around a floor and kicking him and punching him.

And that would be for any adult - but yes- it's absolutely unbelievable that this is a TEACHER in a CLASSROOM full of children.
I'd have fired her for losing her temper and control enough to throw the desk across the room- even if she'd never touched a kid.

And handing a child a piece of paper is an entirely reasonable thing to do. And if that paper gives that child a paper cut - so it goes.

But throwing a desk across a room full of children, flinging a child to the floor and kicking and punching that child is unconscionable and inexcusable.

And yeah, I'd come up with a different way to teach 'traction' than pulling on a child's limb. Maybe you're not aware - but one of the most common injuries and indication of abuse in children is dislocation. You can dislocate a child's shoulder by yanking them by the arm. Whether you mean to or not is not the point. Anyone who works with children should be aware of how injuries might occur and refrain from touching or moving in such a way that that injury might occur.
A dislocation is EXTREMELY painful. So no - I would not teach traction by yanking on a kid's limb hard enough to shift 140 pounds (which is what I'd estimate that boy to weigh) across a non-skid surface. And if I did - I'd deserve whatever I got - but certainly to be fired for extremely bad judgment.

If this was my kid - I'd press charges for assault. This is nothing less than an unprovoked assault by an adult upon a child.

My point is, how do you know it was an assault, and not something mutally agreed upon, a game, or the other examples I used?

We just do not know until we here the entire story, from all parties that were there.


did you do stop action with the video? you can see there is no hard contact.
No, sorry, there is absolutley NO contact in the kick. Did NOT touch the child back, kidney, nothing. Of that I am positive. Those punches and kicks were pulled in every case.

In every news story after the incident, the boy, the boy's parents, the teacher, the school, the authorities, have characterized it as an assault. A lawsuit has already been filed. A rather broad conspiracy in the name of a joke video, I would say.

At one of those links in my post is an article where she does have her say. She apologizes for the incident. She doesn't go into any details though.

I don't know about shoulder dislocations, but it would be very difficult to dislocate someone's hip by pulling them across the floor. It would take a LOT more force than that.

I did not say this was a joke video, nor do I say this is a conspiracy.

I'm saying I could not say from what I could see on the video, that she actually punched or kicked the kid.
If I was on a jury, and had only this video as witness to what actually occured, I would not be able to say she did anything to hurt him.

If you can show me otherwise, I'd happily agree.

The point is - she should never have laid a hand on him.
Every teacher knows that- you do not put your hands on a child in anger.
You are responsible for the safety of every child in your classroom.
She jeopardized that when she threw the desk across the room- before she even touched the boy.

Oh....my....God.....

don't you read what I'm writing??????

We don't know from that video if she is even angry.

We don't know from the video what happened before, and if they were joking, play acting, etc. etc. etc.

This video alone, which is all we have to go by as far as visual proof, does not give any context as to what was going on, before or after.

I know. I live in Utah. Things like that don't happen in Utah.

I dont think it was a joke video, I think it was a enactment of how bullying is wrong. The kids were supposed to be bullying a mentally challenged girl and the tables (literally) were turned on them. No child flinched or moved away, and if a teacher was berserk, that is exactly what they would have done. Technically it is prima facie assault, as a child can not give permission to be rough handled in that manner, and even a parent could be charged doing that. What ever it was, I dont think it was a case of rage.

If a teacher went mad, why would other teachers do nothing and why would kids laugh ?

They don't shoot videos in Utah. They convert them.

Oh...my....god....
Don't you read what I'm writing????

In my first response to you I said it doesn't matter if she was angry or not.
What she did, from her first action to her last on that tape shows extremely bad judgment.

And I'm not convinced, even if her aim WAS just to show what bullying was - that she WASN'T angry at that boy.
'Oh my, I need to teach this little **** a lesson,' she might have been thinking, 'because he made fun of another student.'

Fine, but she's not allowed to teach that lesson physically.

And the force with which she threw that desk and tackled that rather hefty boy to the floor indicated to me that there was some sort of adrenalyn flowing through her.

Maybe she's just a really good actress and enjoyed being in the spotlight for her gatherered audience.

Whatever - she was wrong to do what she did. She admitted she was wrong.
Great - now she has to face the consequences.
Just like she's facing the consequences for ANOTHER pending charge against her involving harming another's property.

I'd say this woman sounds as if she has quite a lot of anger and rage seething just under the surface.

You may think differently. But if anyone ever touched my child or another child within my view as I saw that boy being handled - they'd have to deal with me there and then. And it might only be to hear me say, 'Cut the **** - get off your stage- and start acting like an adult instead of an idiot.'

Why was this not reported right away but first after a couple(?) of weeks?
Why did the mother not either take pictures of the injuries of her son or take him to a doctor right away to get a certifiate about the injuries?
Or are the news reports not correct?

This is as always interesting regarding witnesses.
Two people watch the video and it is seen in two different ways.

The bottom line is, whether or not the student was a turd, the teacher laid her hands on him. A simple swipe across the cheek would have been sufficient to criminalize her action. She takes him down and goes at it a whole minute. It matters not if she missed many blows or if she did any physical damage to him. She messed up and is now paying for it. The entire school is under scrutiny. The boy's sister stated that the teachers all are treating students very differently these days. Headline hungry news teams are gleaning every bit of information they can, from any angle they can imagine.