Teacher appears to punch student who threw desk in shocking video

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — A Georgia school district said it is investigating what led to a teacher getting into a fight with a student.

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The incident, which was caught on camera, reportedly happened at Charles Drew High School in Riverdale after the student threw a desk at the teacher.

The video appears to show the teacher push the high-schooler to the floor and repeatedly punch the student.

On Monday night, the student and his legal guardian spoke to WSB-TV's Matt Johnson. They showed him medical documents that say the punches led to a concussion.

"That didn't look like restraining him to me; it looked like you beat my child," said Yaquanda Lucas.

Lucas said the football coach supervising the class made a joke about the student's stocking cap that involved his recently deceased mother.

"He had his hat on and his stocking and he said the teacher said, 'Quit cutting up your momma's stockings and wearing them on your head.' He said he was picking on him, trying to make the class laugh, and that made him upset," Lucas said.

Johnson reached out to Clayton County Schools, and a spokesperson said, "Since this matter remains under investigation, the district can not comment further."

Lucas also said the child suffers from mental health issues, and district officials are aware of it.

"I don't excuse him throwing the chair, I don't. There's a way to handle these kind of kids, and that's not the way that you do it," Lucas said.

Parents who spoke with WSB-TV's Kristen Holloway said they are furious this took away learning time for students.

“They take enough from schools, they take money, they take extracurriculars, why take these children's time? They only have so much time to learn,” one parent told Holloway.

The video, which was posted to Instagram on Friday, appears to show the student throwing a desk at the teacher. The teacher then appears to punch the student.

“My child needs to be handled, but that teacher … he needs to be absolutely fired,” another parent said.

Kapreshia Greenwood said she wants the district to do more to prevent this from happening again.

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“They need to start doing further background checks on teachers and getting in tune with what’s going on on the outside, too, because you don’t know who’s working in the schools,” Greenwood said. "They have to do better with being more teacher than friends.”

The district told Holloway that officials are aware of the fight and said they are looking into what led up to incident.

We are not identifying the teacher because he has not been charged with a crime.

Clayton County Schools said it wouldn’t comment on whether the teacher was fired or the student was suspended.

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