A viral video showed how a friendly game of musical chairs between students and teachers at a Florida high school went awry when a teacher body slammed a student just to win the game.
The game took place at a pep rally at Westside High School in Jacksonville, Florida, on Aug. 22.
A clip posted to TikTok shows the musical chairs game winding down to the last two players — a male teacher and 16-year-old student, Nyla Millikin.
The two are seen circling the chair, and as soon as the music stops, Millikin grabs the seat and plants herself in it.
Unwilling to give Millikin the victory, the teacher grabs her out of the chair and tackles her to the floor. Then, runs back to the seat to sit down to claim the win for himself before running through the gymnasium to celebrate.
Two staff members were seen helping Millikin off the floor afterward.
“He was a little too close to me from the beginning, from behind. So when the music stopped, you know how somebody pulls the chair and runs? I did that, sat down, then he ran after me, picked me up, and then slammed me,” Millikin told WJXT.
The video drew mixed reactions from viewers. Some people thought that even though the teacher was determined to win the game, he didn’t intend to harm the teen.
“It was his competitive spirit, it got the best of him,” one person wrote on Instagram.
“Nah come on he did not mean to hurt her smh but they finna drag it,” someone else commented.
Others argued that he crossed the line and condemned his behavior entirely.
“I can’t believe people are condoning this and deducing his behavior to playful. Are y’all alright?” one person argued.
“Everyone is saying he’s a good guy, or he didn’t mean to. How you unintentionally pick a person up & slam them to the ground. OVER A GAMEEEEE ! He shouldn’t never even touched her to begin with,” one TikTok viewer wrote.
Millikin said that she suffered a concussion and bruised ribs after the game.
“I think I have it all in a blur. I don’t remember, but I do remember, like, why am I on the ground? And I was thinking like, I’m on the ground, like I shouldn’t be on the ground this hard,” Millikin said.
Millikin’s mother said the teacher went too far and recalled that her daughter came to her crying at the end of the school day after what happened.
“I want justice to be done, because ain’t no teacher should be that close to a student they didn’t know,” Joanna Millikin said. “Nobody should even have to come or even have to deal with their kid going to the emergency room just for a teacher tackling their student over on the ground over musical chairs.”
Following a constructive conversation with the school principal about the teacher’s actions, Millikin’s mother reported that the school immediately enforced measures to address the incident.
The school district released a statement confirming that the teacher “has been reassigned to duties without student contact while the district’s Office of Professional Standards investigates.”
The teacher’s identity is currently unknown. At present, he’s not facing charges.
There’s another video reportedly circulating that shows the teacher pushing another student earlier in the game before he faced off with Millikin.
