Watch: Student Body Slams Substitute Teacher At High School

A bizarre series of events unfolded in a Long Island high school this week, as a student attacked a teacher and the teacher issued an unusual video response. A cell phone video of a student body slamming a substitute teacher emerged online and the teacher was sent home for the day, News 12 Long Island reported.

The video, which was obtained and broadcast by News 12, was taken inside Bellport High School in Brookhaven, New York. The short clip shows a student lifting the substitute teacher over their head and slamming the teacher to the ground.

A motive is not readily apparent from the video itself, but News 12 reported that the incident occurred after some kind of verbal exchange between student and teacher. The student reportedly made fun of the teacher, prompting the teacher to throw a piece of paper at the student. The body slam followed.

Bellport High sent the teacher home afterward, but in a video response, the teacher said he did not want it to come to that. He felt it would set a bad example for a teacher to go home after being attacked by a student. He also alluded to being derisively compared to Shaggy from the cartoon “Scooby Doo,” possibly implying that was what the student called him.

“You can call me Shaggy as much as you want, it doesn’t bother me at all because I know I’m not like him,” the teacher said. “I’m athletic, I’m a good teacher, I read a lot of books. And Shaggy just hangs out with a dog.”

It is not yet known if the school took disciplinary action against either the student or the teacher, or if either returned to Bellport later in the week after the incident.