WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — A student is in custody after being charged with a misdemeanor assault and communicating threats to a teacher at Parkland High School in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools system.

What You Need To Know

  • Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools is investigating a video after a student was filmed assaulting a teacher Monday

  • WSFC Code of Conduct states assault on a school employee is a level five offense that can actually be taken to a level six, which is expulsion

  • The student has been criminally charged

“Mortifying. Unacceptable. Egregious, and definitely should never happen on a campus in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools,” Superintendent Tricia McManus of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools said. 

A video was posted online Monday and shows a student slapping a teacher twice.

“That video got out, but that's just one of many things that they [Board of Education members] haven’t got to see,” said Riley Horton, a junior at Parkland High school. “I think by having this conversation, we can tell them what we see that they don't see, and they can help us improve our safety.”

Teachers’ safety is also top of mind in situations like the one that happened Monday.

McManus said, “self-defense would have been a normal reaction.”

“The fact that this employee was put through that traumatic experience is terrible in the way that anybody would handle that could be different,” she said. “I would not blame a staff member for defending themselves in the event that a child was going to harm them.”

Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough Jr. said the student's action was deplorable.

“The community should be outraged. I know there are a lot of things in our society that used to be sacred, but some things must remain sacred. Those who educate our children, those that give our children hope, we must not go to work in fear of being assaulted,” Kimbrough said.

According to the WSFCS Code of Conduct, assault on a school employee is a level five offense that can be taken to a level six, which is expulsion.

McManus said she plans on recommending expulsion in this case.