LOS ANGELES — A California teacher has been arrested after he was caught on camera getting into a fistfight with a 14-year-old student.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the fight went down in band class, and began when Maywood Academy music teacher Marston Riley asked the teen to leave the classroom for not wearing the proper uniform.
Cellphone video taken at the scene shows the boy refusing, instead coming at Riley with a mouthful of profanity and racial slurs and hitting him with a basketball. In response, the 64-year-old teacher calmly takes out his phone to call for backup, but when the vitriol continues, he walks to the teen and swiftly decks him in the face.
Footage shows the two going at it as other students scramble to move away. Riley is seen delivering more blows before campus staff intervene and pull the boy away.
He was apprehended by police afterwards on suspicion of child abuse and is out on $50,000 bail. The teen, meanwhile, was taken to the hospital for his injuries, but has since been released.
CBSLA reports that parents in the community are furious that a teacher would physically harm a kid, but Maywood faculty members and students are backing the teacher up.
A GoFundMe page has even been set up to help Riley with any fines or fees, and has thus far raked in over $56,000.
