A South Middle School teacher has been placed on leave after a discipline incident during lunch.
The incident happened earlier in the week when a male student and a female student got into an argument during lunch, said Bryan Vaughn, Lancaster County School District safety director.
“They were separated and the male student pushed by a staff member trying to get to the student,” Vaughn said.
The male student was escorted away by staff members, but he pulled away and went back after the other student. A teacher then tried to restrain him from going after the other student.
“It appears to be that when the staff member tried to restrain him, he lost his balance and he falls on the floor first and the student falls down on top of him at the same time,” Vaughn said.
“This was a situation where the staff member was trying to protect a third party from being assaulted.”
The teacher is on paid leave for now, which Vaughn said is the proper protocol until an investigation is completed. He said it is hard to say how long the teacher will be on leave.
Part of the incident was caught on cell phone video and uploaded to social media, but Vaughn said the district is looking at its own video.
“We have got better video surveillance than what is being shown on television,” he said. “That is just cell phone video from a kid that got leaked out into the community. We have the surveillance footage from the school. That will make our investigation easier because we have the whole encounter from start to finish.”
Vaughn didn’t comment on the disciplinary action of the students involved.
