DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — The Dekalb County Schools Superintendent responded Tuesday to a video of students fighting a teacher that has gone viral.
The fight happened April 22 at Martin Luther King Junior High School.
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The superintendent said there was a verbal altercation before what was seen in the video and an attempt to break up a disagreement, Channel 2’s Candace McCowan reported.
The camera picks up what happened next, and it is now being used in the investigation.
You can see the teacher being punched, others trying to break it up and then other swings from students and the teacher himself.
Three students have been charged with battery and disrupting public school. The teacher is on administrative leave during the investigation.
Superintendent Devon Horton and Principal Michael Alexander laid out what they are doing to prevent fights like this one, like mentors and de-escalation training.
Horton spoke about the three students who are now facing charges.
“I don’t support them being criminalized. I do not,” he said. “Every student deserves an opportunity, right? And I will say they are some factors that we are aware of that could have prevented this, and so we are looking into that right now.”
One of the students involved just moved to the district a month ago. He wasn’t in the mentoring program.
There were parents have raised questions about the incident, concerned about what they saw and what they want to see happen.
“That’s crazy, it shouldn’t have happened,” one parent said. “On both sides, it shouldn’t have happened.”
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