A viral video shows an alarming scuffle between a teacher and student at a high school in suburban St. Louis, Missouri.
The 40-second clip posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, shows the two wrestling on the floor in the hallway at Normandy High School in front of a crowd on Wednesday. It appears to show one strike the other multiple times in the head before it was broken up.
The teacher’s partner, Greg Stanton, told KSDK that the incident happened when the student left the classroom but returned to grab her backpack.
“She’s banged up pretty bad…. I’m at work and I get this video…. She was circled up,” Stanton continued.
Stanton claimed the teacher, identified by the Daily Mail as Sheryl Rogers, asked the student to wait, but she didn’t listen. That’s when the student allegedly attacked the 65-year-old. She was transported to the hospital after the fight.
“She really couldn’t talk. She don’t understand why. She was crying,” Stanton said, adding “Where were the police? Where were the (paraprofessionals)?”
In a second video, an adult is seen helping the student who apparently is having a seizure. A crowd of bystanders watched as it played out. According to the report, local police are planning to charge the student, but specifics have yet to be announced. There’s online speculation that the student was attempting to get her medication out of the bag, but as of Friday, neither the school nor local law enforcement have provided additional details on what sparked the brawl.
However, school officials did acknowledge the altercation and emphasized their mission to provide a safe environment for their students and educators. The incident is also under investigation.
“The district is addressing an incident that occurred this morning involving a confrontation between a teacher and a student. The administration is taking this matter seriously and is fully cooperating with local law enforcement,” the school said in a statement, per KSDK. “Additionally, we have launched an internal investigation to gather all the necessary facts surrounding the incident, and appropriate actions will be taken based on the findings of these investigations.”
It continued: “The safety and well-being of our students and staff are of the utmost importance to Normandy Schools Collaborative, and our primary focus is to provide a safe and nurturing space for students to learn and for teachers to educate.”