Teacher allegedly knocks out student for joke about favorite football team

BEAUMONT, Texas — A Texas teacher is out of a job, but not yet facing criminal charges, after he allegedly punched and knocked out a 12-year-old student.

And the ugly incident may have all started from a simple joke about the teacher's favorite football team.

Accoring to 12newsnow.com, the parents of the 80-pound seventh-grader are now looking to get legal representation because they feel like the suspect is getting off too easily.

Middle school student Reginald Walls claims that last week he stopped in the hallway to talk with his math class's assistant teacher.

He says during that conversation he made a joke about the man's favorite team and was then punched in the arm by the teacher.

Wells admits that he reacted to the punch by pushing the teacher's shoulder.

He said that's when things escalated even further, claiming the teacher blindsided him with a punch to the face that knocked him out for at least a few seconds, "He like hit me, and I blacked out … the left side of my face was numb, my lip hurt, my head was hurt, like it had been shaken."

Reginald's mother Adrianne Wells claims the principal at Willie Ray Smith Middle School in Beaumont, Texas, admitted to her that the teacher gave her son an uppercut to the face, causing the boy to slide across the floor.

The principal reportedly told Ms. Wells that the teacher was immediately fired and escorted off the school's property. The principal says the teacher admitted to just "snapping" and had been having a bad day.

Wells says the firing does not go far enough and that the teacher should be facing criminal charges as well. She says she is seeking legal counsel because she can't seem to get any further action from the school district.

WSBTV