A high school student in Antoich, Tennessee, pepper sprayed her teacher twice after the latter confiscated her phone. The incident, which was caught on camera, has caused outrage on social media platforms. The video, which was originally shared on Reddit shows the student assaulting the teacher a second time with the pepper spray. The student was reportedly "texting and Googling answers for her school work" when the teacher took away her phone.
The student is an adult, and this is not the first time such an incident has occurred at the high school. Two months ago, the same teacher was punched in the face when he confiscated another student's phone when the latter was caught cheating. Some Reddit users claim that incidents of assault are quite common at the particular high school.
The incident has sparked a debate on social media about empowering teachers in high schools and whether it is legal for students to carry pepper spray to school. While pepper sprays are marketed as aerosols that can be used to defend oneself from attackers, they contain an inflammatory compound called capsaicin, which can be harmful.
{{/usCountry}}The incident has sparked a debate on social media about empowering teachers in high schools and whether it is legal for students to carry pepper spray to school. While pepper sprays are marketed as aerosols that can be used to defend oneself from attackers, they contain an inflammatory compound called capsaicin, which can be harmful.
{{/usCountry}}A Twitter user reacted to the tweet, "The teacher is the authority there and a representative of the state, being paid by taxpayers to do a job. Plenty of policies outlining the use of technology in schools, and the fact that the teacher was able to take the phone proves that it was not where it should have been to begin with. This is a legal matter, that was assault, multiple times, with a less-than-lethal weapon on a representative of the state doing state business on state property. And her actions disrupted the jobs and education of numerous other students and staff. In Summary: That was an effed up move."
Another Twitter user reacted comparing the school culture in America and third world countries, they wrote, “This. She would be expelled immediately in a third world country. Often time, I wonder why the young people don’t respect their teachers in America. Is kind of a cultural shock to me. I’m an immigrant. This kind of behavior will not be tolerated in my native country.”
All netizens were not against the student, a Twitter user tried to defend her actions saying, “Maybe her phone didn’t have a passcode and had sensitive information or pictures, I don’t think she handled it correctly but she also didn’t spray enough, he was completely able to make his way out of the classroom and have a conversation while making eye contact”
The gravity of the whole incident lies in various legal, ethical, moral and psychological aspects of teacher-student relationship in a school environment. To quote a tweet, “The student definitely wasn’t justified either legally or ethically with their actions towards the teacher. The issue with the current generation of kids is that electronics are so embedded in their social structure, some kids have an almost addictive behaviour when it’s taken away even if just temporarily.”