A 74-year-old substitute teacher was brutally beaten by a 6-foot-2, 280-pound student in Indiana earlier this month.
Rob Gooding was serving as a substitute at Perry Meridian High School in Indianapolis on Feb. 1 when the student hit him with a laptop, knocked him to the ground and punched him in the face.
Paramedics quickly arrived on scene to treat significant injuries to Gooding’s face, and Gooding told a school employee who arrived with emergency services that he wanted his attacker arrested and prosecuted.
However, Gooding claims that school officials refused to allow the arrest because they were ordered to do so by the district.
“I saw him come up and he said, ‘I’ve had it,’ and he came down and I blocked the Chromebook. That’s where the hole was Gooding told WISHTVrevealing the noticeable injury to his forearm.
A 74-year-old substitute teacher was brutally beaten by a 6-foot-2, 280-pound student in Indiana earlier this month
Rob Gooding was serving as a substitute at Perry Meridian High School in Indianapolis on Feb. 1 when the student attacked him
Gooding claims that school officials refused to allow the arrest because they were ordered to do so by the district
“This man child was 6 feet tall, 280 pounds,” he said.
“He hovered over me and hit me with his left hand,” Gooding added.
The teacher said he immediately requested the student’s arrest but was told the arrest had been prevented by the school district.
“Then he said to me, ‘We have been instructed by the higher-ups, that is the district, not to handcuff or arrest the child,’ and I said, ‘What?’ and he said, “Yes, that came from above,” Gooding said.
“The Perry Police Department responded quickly to the incident,” read a statement from the Perry Township School District.
“A police report has been forwarded to the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office. Prosecutors will then make a criminal decision.”
Gooding said he still believes charges should be filed against the student.
“He should be held accountable for his actions and I think so,” he said.
The teacher said he immediately asked for the student to be arrested, but was told this would be blocked by the school official on site
The incident occurred earlier this month at Perry Meridian High School in Indianapolis
The case remains under investigation, a spokesperson for the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.
It comes amid a wave of violent attacks on teachers across the country.
A ninth-grade student from Rockdale County, Georgia, has been charged with aggravated battery after attacking his high school teacher in January.
English language arts teacher Tiwana Turner was attacked in her classroom at Heritage High School on January 26.
Turner was hospitalized after the incident. with knee injuries and a broken leg.
She will reportedly require extensive rehabilitation before returning to work.
Verdaillia Turner, president of the Georgia Federation of Teachers, shared this Fox 5 Atlanta she was angry about the video and that such incidents directly contribute to the national teacher shortage.
“Students are out of control (…) there is no excuse for the violence (…) there is no excuse for children who come into our school every day and wreak havoc so that other students cannot learn,” she told the outlet.
a questionnaire of nearly 15,000 pre-K-12 teachers between 2020 and 2021 found that one-third of teachers reported experiencing at least one incident of verbal harassment or a threat of violence from students during the period.
In 2020, 10 percent of the teachers reported that students had threatened them with harm.
Another six percent reported that a student had physically assaulted them.