A viral video of a Texas teacher being thrown to the ground while trying to break up a fight in her classroom is making waves online.
The footage shows two male students at Hurshel Antwine Middle School fighting on Monday, May 20. Their teacher gets in between them in an effort to stop the fight, but one of the boys grabs her and throws her to the ground before he continues pummeling the other student.
Other students stand around watching and laughing while the fight goes on; one girl screams, “Oh my God,” when the teacher falls, but none of the students step in to help her.
Though it is unclear what started the altercation, in the video, the second student doesn’t seem like he is trying to fight back. However, the student who tossed the teacher continues to hit him.
The fight continues with the boys moving around the classroom, and the teacher is knocked to the ground a second time before two other female teachers come into the room and are finally able to separate the boys.
Before the footage ends, one teacher can be heard yelling, “What are you doing?” to the student who slammed the teacher.
Located in El Paso, Texas, Hurschel is in the Socorro Independent School District. According to its website, it is the second-largest district in the city and serves approximately 47,500 students.
The school’s principal, Patricia Fernandez, sent a message to parents informing them of the incident, KTSM reported.
“I am calling to inform you that an altercation occurred among students in a classroom on our campus today. This was an isolated incident between individual students,” the message said. “The students involved are being addressed by administration and law enforcement, as appropriate. There was no threat to other students or the campus. Thank you for your continued trust and support of Hurshel Antwine Middle School and Team SISD.”
While students can be heard laughing in the background of the footage, many users on social media didn’t find the disturbing incident funny at all. They didn’t waste any time chiming in with their thoughts.
“This is America’s future,” conservative media founder Collin Rugg wrote on X. When another user responded, “Teachers don’t get paid enough to deal with this stuff,” Rugg replied, “Agreed. This poor woman. Getting paid 50k a year just to be assaulted.”
“Sending support to all educators. To those not in the trenches of K-12 education, this is not an isolated incident. This video exemplifies what occurs on a daily basis NO MATTER THE ZIPCODE or grade level,” another user responded. “What has to take place for the public to believe it?”
Another user summed up an argument that many have been making on behalf of educators.
“Personally, I don’t think teachers should break up fights… they do too much that they should not have to… buying school supplies, cleaning up after students etc… hopefully, one day teachers are able to just teach,” the user replied to a post that included the video.
Still, another user criticized the now-familiar tendency of people to record violent incidents instead of trying to stop them.
“I’m sick & tired of people recording instead of helping. Do something! If you’re afraid of getting injured, then call for help or go get help. Do something. Anything,” the user wrote.
Governor Greg Abbott posted a comment on the video in hopes of promoting his school voucher program that failed to pass through the Texas House multiple times in 2023. Not everyone felt the time was right.
The El Paso Teacher Association president, Norma De La Rosa, told KFox14, “I do think that he’s using it for a political game. It’s unfortunate that he has to resort to that level of demonizing what happens in our schools. And, you know, and exploit that out to the public.”
The identities of the students involved have not been officially released, likely due to them being minors.
