A 74-year-old substitute teacher was brutally beaten by a six foot two student weighing 280 pounds in Indiana earlier this month.
Rob Gooding was serving as a substitute at Perry Meridian High School in Indianapolis on February 1 when the student hit him with a laptop, beat him to the ground and punched him in the face.
Paramedics swiftly arrived on scene to treat Gooding’s substantial facial injuries, and Gooding told a school resource officer who arrived with the emergency crews he wanted his attacker arrested and prosecuted.
However, Gooding alleges, school officials refused to allow the arrest because they had been instructed by the district to do so.
‘I saw him come up, and he said, ‘I’ve had it,’ and he came down and I blocked the Chromebook. That’s where the hole was,’ Gooding told WISHTV, revealing the prominent injury on his forearm.
A 74-year-old substitute teacher was brutally beaten by a six foot two student weighing 280 pounds in Indiana earlier this month
Rob Gooding, was serving as a substitute at Perry Meridian High School in Indianapolis on February 1 when the student attacked him
Gooding alleges, school officials refused to allow the arrest because they had been instructed by the district to do so
‘This man child was 6-feet-2, 280 pounds,’ he said.
‘He hovered over me and with his left hand, whammed me,’ Gooding added.
The teacher said he immediately asked for the student to be arrested, but was told the arrest was prevented by the school district.
‘Then he said to me, “We have been instructed by the higher-ups, which is the district, not to handcuff, or arrest the kid,” and I said, “What?” and he said, “Yes, that came from the higher-ups,”‘ Gooding said.
‘Perry Police responded to the incident quickly,’ read a statement from the Perry Township School District.
‘A police report was forwarded to the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office. Prosecutors will then make a criminal charge decision.’
Gooding says he still believes charges should be filed against the student.
‘He has to be accountable for his actions and that’s what I feel,’ he said.
The teacher said he immediately asked for the student to be arrested, but was told it would be blocked by the school official on the scene
The incident occurred at Perry Meridian High School in Indianapolis earlier this month
The case remains under investigation a spokesman for the Marion County Prosecutors Office said in a statement.
It comes amidst a wave of violent attacks on teachers across the country.
A ninth-grade student in Rockdale County, Georgia, has been charged with aggravated battery after attacking their high school teacher in January.
English Language Arts teacher Tiwana Turner was attacked in her classroom at Heritage High School on 26 January.
Turner was hospitalized following the incident, suffering knee injuries as well as a broken leg.
She will reportedly require extensive rehabilitation before she can return to work.
Verdaillia Turner, president of the Georgia Federation of Teachers, told Fox 5 Atlanta she was angered by the video and that incidents like that directly contribute to the nationwide teaching shortage.
‘Students are out of control […] there is no excuse for the violence […] there is no excuse for children who are coming into our school daily and wreaking havoc so other students cannot learn,’ she told the outlet.
A survey of nearly 15,000 pre-k-12 teachers from 2020 to 2021 found that one-third of teachers reported that they had experienced at least one incident of verbal harassment or a threat of violence from students during the period.
In 2020, 10 percent of teachers reported that students had threatened them with injury.
Another six percent reported that a student had physically attacked them.
