A U.S. veteran is speaking out after a teacher in his son’s high school physically assaulted the teen while in class.
The man says had the roles been reversed and his son, a Black boy, would have acted as aggressively as the teacher. The child would have been arrested.
Now, the dad is worried that his child may suffer with “invisible scars,” is calling for the teacher’s credentials to be stripped away, and looking to take legal action.
A Humble, Texas, high school English teacher is under investigation after he snatched up and pushed Elvert Bolden’s 10th-grade son across the classroom and slammed his body against the wall on Wednesday, Jan. 11.
According to the educator, the boy was misbehaving in a classroom along the same hallway as the aggressive teacher. The student was given a substitute teacher a hard time, and the English teacher came in to regulate the room. However, the teacher roughed the child up because he allegedly talked back, FOX 26 reports.
The father said he was allegedly too loud in the class for the teacher’s liking.
“[The teacher] stayed in his face, antagonizing him,” Bolden explains. “My son told him, ‘You told me to be quiet. I’m not saying nothing else,’ and that’s when I was told the teacher snatched the chair from up under my baby.”
The Humble Independent School District’s account is similar but not as detailed, stating, “the teacher was helping out in another classroom when he used physical force to try to get a student to take a seat and listen.”
One of the boy’s classmates captured a 30-second cellphone video of the altercation which has since been shared on social media. In it, other youths can be seen trying to de-escalate the violent scenario — to no avail. Before wrestling him to the ground, the teacher continued to mush the student into the class bulletin board.
KHOU 11 notes that the 16-year-old was sitting in his chair when the teacher pulled it from under him and then placed his hands on the teen’s shoulders and around his neck before being shoved.
“It’s very upsetting,” said the father about the video, recalling how his child was “grabbed” by the teacher, “slung” over multiple tables and chairs, and “then slammed him up against the wall.”
“You see the students trying to get the teacher off of him, and he’s steady yelling ‘why are you putting your hands on me?’ Then the teacher slams him on the ground and the teacher gets on top of him,” Bolden said.
Bolden said he watched his “baby” being abused by an adult with great difficulty, and he wants the unidentified teacher to face the consequences, including never being allowed to work in any school anywhere for the rest of his life.
The father believes the teacher committed a crime and should be punished by a court of law.
“I want him arrested; charges filed. I want his teacher’s license revoked. I don’t want him to be able to go to any school in any state and be able to teach another child in the event he may do this again. If I would have put my hands on my baby, I would have been in jail,” Bolden states.
He added that he believes if it were his son who grabbed the teacher, “he would have went to jail.”
“My son didn’t put his hands on him,” the father said. “That teacher put his hands on my baby but that teacher got to get in his vehicle and drive home. I have a problem with that”.
As a result of the incident, the victim was taken to a local hospital’s emergency room, where he left limping with crutches. He also suffered bruising and swelling over his body.
While the father knows the physical wounds will heal, he is worried about what the long-term impact of the incident will be on the youngster, saying, “How’s my son going to be mentally? We already see how he is physically. Physically, he’ll heal. Me myself, my wounds from the military healed, but I still deal with the invisible wounds of it, PTSD.”
Members of the community have chimed in on the case, according to ABC 13.
New Black Panther Nation Chairman Quanell X said, “This teacher was out of control. In fact, his behavior reminds you of teachers gone wild.”
The student’s grandfather James Bolden promises the family is not backing down.
“We’re not just flapping our lips and saying nothing like James Brown said. We’re going after him with legal actions,” the patriarch stated.
According to the boy’s dad, his son is so unnerved he has yet to return to school.
“We’re just waiting on my son to feel comfortable with coming back. We don’t know if he’s going to stay at the school or if he’s going to go somewhere else,” Bolden said. “That’s up in the air right now.”
The administration from the Humble Independent School District released a statement condemning the teacher’s actions and assuring the parents he has been taken off the campus as a full investigation is being completed.
“This should not have happened. It is unacceptable,” the statement said emphatically. “The teacher has been put on leave. An investigation is underway, and it is unlikely he will be returning when the investigation concludes.”
“These actions are unacceptable and contrary to standards and expectations for all employees. The district has a process for addressing serious concerns, which includes reporting to law enforcement and full cooperation with any law enforcement investigation. Humble ISD Police are investigating,” the district stated.
For Bolden, the case is open and shut. He needs to be fired.
“I don’t want this teacher to be able to teach nowhere in this state, or in this country for that matter,” the student’s father said. “No child should be having a teacher who is supposed to be teaching and protecting him, slang him all over the room like he a rag doll.”
