Beaumont, Texas - A math teacher in Ozen High School is now facing assault charges after a video showing her hitting one of her students surfaced online.
Fox News reported that Mary Hastings, 63 years old, is now being investigated by Beaumont Independent School District police and administrators for hitting one of her students multiple times. The video shows Hastings hitting the student five times while shouting at him "...because you're stopping him from graduating you idiot."
The student who recorded the video said that the incident happened on Friday. It is still unclear what transpired before the video was taken that provoked Hastings to hit her student, but the BISD is already investigating the issue. According to CBS News, Hastings was placed on administrative leave while investigation is on-going. "BISD does not condone employees abusing any child and will not tolerate such conduct," Nakisha Burns, the spokesperson of BISD said. "The teacher was immediately removed from the classroom and placed on administrative leave pending action on her contract."
Hastings was arrested and placed under custody in Jefferson County Jail. She was charged with assault but then released afterwards after she paid the bail of $2,500.
Hastings is a veteran teacher but she has been in the district for only three years. In an interview with Fox 4 Beaumont, one Ozen High School student, who prefers to be anonymous, said that Hastings is known to be a great teacher in that school and that students would sometimes throw things and cuss at her. "You know we only see 12 seconds of it. That's all it is. It's not the whole thing," the student said. This statement adds another angle of Hasting's behavior. She added that some students were upset about Hasting's video and that others, including school employees, were shocked after they watched it. Hastings cannot be reached to give her side of the story.
Different cases where an attack between a teacher and a student has been an ongoing problem in Texas. A Similar case happened last November 2015 in Dallas, Texas when a Skyline High School teacher hit a student. However, in this case, the student was the first one to punch the teacher and the teacher just fought back. Neither of the two has been identified. According to CBS News, the student was giving a presentation in front of her classmates and became angry after the teacher corrected the teenager. The student threw a punch at the teacher and the teacher fought back and that is when the two started fighting. Afterwhich, the teacher filed charges against the student.
