Texas Teacher Arrested for Allegedly Hitting Student
— -- A Texas school district placed a teacher on administrative leave after a video surfaced appearing to show her hitting a student in class, resulting in her arrest.
“The Beaumont Independent School District can confirm that an Ozen High School teacher was arrested today for physically assaulting a student,” district officials said in a statement Friday. “The conduct was substantiated by video footage viewed by BISD police and administration.”
The allegation is against geometry teacher Mary A. Hastings, the special assistant to the district superintendent, Nakisha Burns, told ABC News today.
The Beaumont Independent School District Police Department, which made the arrest, did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment, but Hastings, 63, was, “immediately removed from the classroom and placed on administrative leave pending action on her contract,” according to the school district.
In the video recorded Friday, Hastings appears to hit the student repeatedly saying, “Because you’re stopping him from graduating, you idiot a--.”
The student responds, “Why’d you did that?” before Hastings appears to mimic him, while the rest of the class starts laughing and yelling. The student then goes back to looking at his cellphone.
Hastings was booked into the Jefferson County Jail Friday on an assault charge, and released on $2,500 bond the same day, a jail spokesman said today.
It’s unclear whether she has a lawyer or has entered a plea.
In Friday’s statement, Burns said that, “The District is committed to providing a safe and secure environment for our students. BISD does not condone employees abusing any child and will not tolerate such conduct.”
