05-18-2023, 01:10 AM
PeterB wrote:
[quote=Tiangou]
He assaulted her when he grabbed the phone.
Assault and battery.
I don't see any evidence that he grabbed the phone?
How do you suppose that he took it from her while she was texting?
Unfortunately, all that we have to go on is the statement from the teacher and the video from the hallway so until the student's family gets an attorney and publishes a statement, the description is entirely one-sided and biased.
From it, we can nevertheless tell a few things...
She reacted inappropriately when he grabbed it, but he was wrong to lay hands on her at all even if it was for a split-second as he confiscated the phone.
The appropriate thing to do would have been to ask her for the phone and if she refused then get the principal and her parents involved.
Any non-consenting physical contact is a battery. Putting someone in apprehension of an inappropriate physical contact is an assault.
Were she an adult, she could easily press criminal charges. As she's a juvenile under his care, most jurisdictions would protect him from liability for the tort and they might require an aggravating factor before pressing criminal charges.
Of course, the district is covering their asses by releasing the video from that point and perspective and their lawyers are clearly trying to get ahead of things by getting their narrative out quickly. Her reaction was so extreme that nobody's paying attention to the provocation or the fact that he grabbed her again as they were exiting the classroom.
I'd like to see how things play out in court. It's not unreasonable to reflexively respond to an assault/battery by using pepper spray and in that state she seems to have a "stand your ground" defense.