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‘Somebody Needs to … Shut That School Down’: Two Teens Jump North Carolina Teacher, Pull Out Her Hair; Now She Refuses to Return to the School

A substitute teacher says she won’t return to the high school where she was attacked by two students in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Renata Horton was assaulted by two teenage girls at the Turning Point Academy on March 22.

Horton was substitute teaching at the alternative high school for at-risk students on Moores Chapel Road when she was assaulted by two female students, a 17-year-old and a 16-year-old. Horton told WSOCTV that the teenagers attacked her after she asked them to remove their hoodies, clothing that was against the school’s policy.

Renata Horton
Substitute teacher Renata Horton was attacked by two students at the Turning Point Academy in Charlotte, North Carolina, on March 22, 2023. (Photo: WSOCTV9 screenshot / YouTube)

After Horton asked the students to remove their hoodies, the 57-year-old said that a behavior modification technician trained in managing student behavior quickly intervened.

“The BMT jumps up in my face and says, ‘Hold up, Miss Horton … you know and everybody else knows that she walks around with her hoodie all the time.’”

Before Horton could respond, one of the teenagers charged her as the other teenager jumped her from behind and choked her. Horton said the two teenagers also beat and kicked her as she fell to the ground. The girls also pulled her hair.

“And when she knocked me down, that’s when the other one got her hands on me,” Horton said. “And she jumped behind me and was choking me back here, pulling me on my neck, and pulling all my hair. And that’s when they started beating me.”

Horton said that the girls beat and kicked her on the ground, adding the male BMT did nothing to help her and that another BMT from a different classroom eventually came to her aid.

“And then this other student that hangs out with them said, ‘Now b—h, you can pick up one of your locs that they pulled out because you done just got your ass beat by two students.'”

Horton said that no one at the school offered to get her medical assistance. She said she suffered from a concussion as well as a jammed finger, headaches and neck pain.

The substitute teacher was moved to tears over the ordeal and said that she was upset by the lack of support she received from staffers at the school during and following the violent assault. “Where was that man? The BMT? Where was he?”

“I’m hurt that I didn’t have hardly no support today, because I’ve been nothing but good to Turning Point,” she said. “I don’t call out. I’m a sub and anytime them kids ask me for something to eat, I give it to them.”

Horton also remembered having a hard time getting up after she was assaulted and noted that nobody helped her get onto her feet.

“Somebody needs to get up out their bed and shut that school down,” she added. “They’re going to let somebody sneak a gun in there next… They need help. They need more support, or the people who are at the schools that’s in these roles, they need better training.”

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg police were called to the school and the teens were charged with disorderly conduct and assault. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools released a statement claiming in part that “the safety of our students and staff remains a top priority.”

Horton said that she hopes the teenagers won’t hurt anyone else.

“My prayer and hope is that these girls or these young ladies will never do no one else mother, sister, aunt, cousin, or grandmama, like this,” she said. “No human being like this. The way they done me.”

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