Student-on-teacher attacks are on a dangerous uptick, but recently, some Black male educators gave a violent student a lesson from the school of hard knocks.
A viral video circulating on social media shows an altercation between the student and a male educator that left the former being the poster boy for what it means to mess around and find out.
It opens with a male staffer talking to a student who is being held back by others in a classroom.
“Whenever you see a b—ch, you slap one. So, I tell you what, I can show you better than I can tell you,” the school staffer says to the boy. “No, no, no, let him go,” he continues, now talking to those who are restraining him.
The student then runs up to try and assault the man, but his attempt is thwarted when another male staffer steps in to block him and push him back. As another student starts trying to break away from a different male staffer, the first student breaks free, runs up, and attempts to drop-kick the first educator with whom he had the initial altercation.
That’s when things go way left for the student as he misses and is immediately placed in a headlock by the staffer. Two other male staffers continue to try to de-escalate the situation by pulling the student away, but he picks up an object from a nearby table and throws it at the man.
At this point, the first staffer grabs his hands to stop him from continually attacking him while his colleague is pulling him away, then another student runs up behind him and starts punching the educator. The staffer swats that student away, and the three of them continue to restrain the first student until he calms down.
Some social media users pointed out how impressed they were with how the male educators handled the situation.
“Handled it like men. Strength but just enough,” one user responded.
“My favorite part is when the other kid runs in hitting the big guy and he barley notices,” another user wrote on X, pointing out how unfazed the educator was by one of the kids who tried to attack him. “Settle down lil man.”
The incident and reactions to it underscore the importance of having Black male educators in the profession. Not only are they able to provide protection and restore safety and order in situations like the aforementioned, studies have confirmed Blacks students perform better with Black teachers.
Black male teachers also inspire children who look like them to remain in school and go on to do great things. According to a report from DonorsChoose, male teachers spend more time mentoring and counseling their students outside of the classroom than any other demographic. One study showed that the graduation rate of Black students increased by 33 percent if they had a Black teacher between the third and fifth grades.
“It’s important for children to see Black males in their lives, especially on a daily basis, who are in respectable positions of authority,” said Terrence Martin, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers and a former elementary school teacher. “I think that gives them something to strive for, even if they don’t become teachers. They can see someone who ‘looks like me,’ and it tells them they can become a professional, a writer, an educator, someone who is respected.”
However, Black male educators only make up 2 percent of the teaching workforce.
It’s something Ryan Henderson personally experienced growing up.
“I did not see myself represented as a teacher, and when you don’t see yourself represented as somebody who is with you for hours teaching you, molding your brain, you don’t see yourself doing that,” the Charlotte, North Carolina, teacher told Q City Metro.
Then, he was inspired by two Black teachers in middle school and college, respectively. Now, he is an educator who knows firsthand the difference that having just one Black male teacher can make.
“When you have the opportunity to have a strong Black male teacher in the classroom, giving positive reinforcement and knowledge that you can use for the rest of your life, it makes a huge difference in how a child will turn out,” Henderson concluded.
