Teacher who knocked down HS student in fistfight — allegedly after student called him racial slur — released without bail



A 27-year-old substitute teacher who was arrested Thursday after knocking down a high school student in a fistfight caught on video in Las Vegas — allegedly after the student called the teacher a racial slur — was released without bail.

What are the details?

Re’Kwon Smith was booked into the Clark County Detention Center after his arrest Thursday, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported, adding that Smith — shackled and in street clothes — appeared Friday afternoon in court in front of Hearing Master Daniel Westmeyer.

Image source: YouTube screenshot, composite

Westmeyer dropped Smith's $9,000 bail and released him because he has no criminal history and was not determined to be a flight risk, KLAS-TV reported.

The station added that Smith's release is contingent on him avoiding further arrests or citations, not returning to Valley High School, and having no contact with the involved student. Smith is due back in court May 27, KLAS said.

What's the background?

Initially KLAS said in its video report, citing sources, that the student used a racial slur against the teacher and that Thursday's fight allegedly started in a classroom when the teacher asked the student to leave after he used the N-word.

A clip of the fight in the KLAS video report shows the teacher knocking down the student after multiple punches:

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But that's not all that was caught on video.

A longer raw video of the fight shows the smaller student continually going after and swinging at the larger teacher, even though the teacher easily knocks the student to the floor not once but twice. Other students intervene, and the teacher walks away amid a throng of onlookers.

Another raw clip offers a close-up of the teacher knocking the student to the floor for the final time, hovering over him, hitting him in the head, and yelling, "Are you crazy?" After schoolmates bring the student to his feet, the teacher — whose shirt is torn open — hollers, "You lost your motherf**king mind, boy!" But the apparently dazed student hollers what sounds like, "You're goin' to jail, [N-word]!" at the teacher and actually laughs before a campus security monitor leads the student away.

Smith was charged with battery resulting in serious bodily harm, assault on a school pupil on school property/vehicle/activity, threatening to do bodily harm to a public school student, and interfering with a student from attending school, KLAS said.

The district hired Smith in November and assigned him to the high school, the station said, adding that police said the district will remove Smith from the substitute pool, and he's no longer eligible to serve as a substitute in the district.

While KLAS said the student also was arrested, KNTV-TV said its sources indicated the student is recovering in a hospital.

Another student told KNTV that the student in the video — a close friend — is "in the hospital right now, but he said he doesn't remember that good what happened ... he has a concussion, and he has scratches all over his face."

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Patriotic company gives free red, white, and blue upgrade to kid who fought school to fly American flag on his pickup truck



Blaze News readers likely recall last week's inspiring story about an Indiana high school student who battled his school for the right to fly an American flag on the back of his pickup truck — and won the fight.

Well, a patriotic outfit in Cincinnati caught wind of Cameron Blasek's dust-up with East Central High School in St. Leon and offered the stand-up senior a free upgrade to his truck — right in line with his heartfelt feelings about America.

GCI Digital Imaging applied a new custom wrap to his ride that features the stars and stripes and a red, white, and blue color scheme, WXIX-TV reported.

“I’m pretty happy that now I get to pull up to school in this thing, and I am happy to show off this American pride that I’ve been shown,” Blasek told the station.

Image source: YouTube screenshot

The company provided photos to WXIX anchor Tricia Macke showing Cameron's truck undergoing its patriotic makeover along with a video of it being hauled on a flatbed back to its proud owner.

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“We did it because we are proud Americans that believe that Cameron did exactly what needs to be done, stand up for our freedoms,” GCI Digital Imaging owner TJ Bedacht added to WXIX.

As Blaze News previously reported, it all started when a vice principal and counselor told Cameron to remove the flag from his truck.

His response?

"I said, 'It's not happening.' I told them it would be there all day today and first thing in the morning tomorrow, too. Then they said, 'If you don't take it down, you are getting written up for insubordination.' Then they said, 'We could go to the office and talk about it more' if I would like," Cameron told news outlet the 765.

A day later, nearly two dozen other students showed up with flags attached to their vehicles, and Cameron was called to the principal's office. The plucky student said he was told that "the school has a right to request that I remove the flag. I pretty much told him, 'Well, you are just asking me to, but I don't have to.'"

With that, the powers that be backed down, and the principal sent a letter to parents saying the school encourages "expressions of patriotism and pride in our nation among our students and staff."

"After careful consideration and in recognition of the importance of the U.S. flag as a symbol of unity and national identity, I am pleased to inform you that we are allowing the display of the U.S. Flag by students in the East Central parking lot. I understand the significance of this symbol and the pride it instills in our students, teachers, and the entire school community. I share this pride," the letter said.

Cameron — who said he's thinking about joining the U.S. military after high school — noted that "men and women fought and lost their lives for me and others to have the right to fly that flag in our front yard and our trucks. I respect and appreciate those heroes for that. I also believe it's one of my rights as an American to fly that flag, as it says in my First Amendment right."

(H/T: Not the Bee)

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HS student listed as 'Black Guy' in basketball team yearbook photo; all other players are white and listed by name



An Indiana high school student was listed as "Black Guy" in his basketball team's yearbook photo while the rest of the players — all of whom are white — were listed by name.

What are the details?

Superintendent Laura Hammack and Brown County High School Principal Matthew Stark issued an apology letter Monday calling the incident "a truly reprehensible error," WRTV-TV reported.

Image source: WXIN-TV video screenshot

"We acknowledge that yearbook is the only class at this school where all assignments and homework are published for all to see," the statement reads, according to the station. "We strive for perfection and hope any errors are minor and inconsequential. This is not an inconsequential error."

In response, the district launched an investigation and consequences will be determined when the investigation is completed, WRTV reported, citing the superintendent and principal's statement.

The yearbook is typically created by the yearbook class and overseen and edited by teachers, WXIN-TV reported.

"Our district has been working to advance equity and inclusion for all protected classes; however, an occasion like this evidences the need for expanded response," the statement also says, the station noted. "We are committed to ensuring that Brown County Schools provide a welcoming, safe, inclusive, and equitable school community. We remain relentless in our pursuit of the same."

The letter also said the district "is working collaboratively with the student's family to find ways to rectify the situation," WRTV said, adding that the error is a "clear violation of our nondiscrimination policy."

Hammack addressed the issue Monday in a Facebook video saying, "This has been a really hard day for a student and for a family. And we will work hard to make sure that a student and a family who are experiencing what they're experiencing today don't need to experience the same feelings moving forward," WXIN noted.

Nearly 97% of Brown County residents are white while 0.7% are black, the Kansas City Star reported, adding that Hammack said a possible solution is issuing yearbook reprint and allowing students to exchange them for free.

The superintendent also said she's working with the yearbook publisher on a future solution, WXIN said.

HS teacher orders student to take down flag supporting President Trump seen in his room — or leave online class



A New Jersey public school teacher ordered a student to take down a flag supporting President Donald Trump that was hanging in his room — and was visible during an online class — or leave the virtual session, Jersey Shore Online reported.

What are the details?

Anthony Ribeiro, a Toms River High School North junior, got the Trump flag from his aunt last week as a birthday present, and the 17-year-old promptly hung the flag in his room, the outlet said.

Nothing was said about the flag during his first six classes Thursday, the outlet said — but there was still his final class of the day to get through: chemistry.

"I was the first in because I make sure I am on time, but he looked up at the screen, didn't say anything, and as people came in, he took attendance, and then said, 'Anthony take the flag down right now,'" Ribeiro recalled to the outlet. "My mic was muted because that is one of the requirements for meets this year and shook my head no, and he said [his] room wasn't a place for politics and that was not acceptable and 'if you aren't going to take it down, you will have to get out of this class.'"

Double standard much?

Ribeiro added to Jersey Shore Online that his teacher brought up politics during the first week of school last month.

"The school set up a system with a period of 15 minutes between every other class where you would talk about mental health and talk about what was going on in the world, and [the teacher] decided to talk about global warming for most of the days, and he would bring politics into it," he recalled to the outlet. "In learning, you need to have politics in social studies or history, but teachers have to be down the middle when it comes to being a Democrat or Republican."

Ribeiro also told the outlet his teacher "said Republicans don't believe in climate change or global warming, and Joe Biden and the Democrats are the people that will put light on what the science is to global warming. In one of his class periods [the teacher] said 'that is why they have my vote this year in the election and hopefully in the future they will have yours.' He said Republicans deny global warming is even a thing, which made it political."

He added to Jersey Shore Online that some of his fellow students found his teacher's reaction hypocritical: "A couple people texted me ... afterward and said it was crazy for him to say there was no politics in his room when he makes political remarks."

What did the student's mother have to say?

Tara Jost, Ribeiro's mother, told the outlet she didn't take kindly to her son's treatment and contacted the district superintendent and high school principal.

"This is in my own house," Jost noted to Jersey Shore Online, adding that there are no rules she's aware of regarding room decorations.

She added to the outlet that Assistant Superintendent Cara DiMeo noted the teacher's actions were improper and that the matter had been discussed with him.

"I said, 'How dare he tell my son to leave his classroom because of something I have in my home?' He's a science teacher number one; number two, we're Americans, and we all have the right in what we believe in, and he was talking politics the first week of class, which he has no right to do in telling them who to vote for," Jost told the outlet.

She also noted to Jersey Shore Online that if students wore Trump shirts to school during in-person education, they wouldn't be asked to leave.

Then it happened again

The day after Ribeiro's chemistry teacher told him to remove his Trump flag or leave his class, Ribeiro's English teacher told him the same thing, the outlet said.

He agreed to abide by the order, but Jost told Jersey Shore Online she wishes he hadn't.

More from the outlet:

Ribeiro said he was a year away from being able to vote and during the pandemic has become very active in following the news and learning more about the political world. He noted being well aware of how divided people are at the current time including division within families and friends who have differing viewpoints.

A district representative told Jersey Shore Online that officials can't comment because it's an internal matter.

Teacher told student he had 15 seconds to remove a Trump flag or he’d be kicked out of online class



A high school teacher in Northern California threatened to kick a student out of a virtual class unless he removed a "Trump 2020" flag from his camera background.

According to KOVR-TV, the 16-year-old student was in his bedroom participating in an online class for Colusa High School when his chemistry teacher took issue with the sign and demanded that he take it down or adjust the camera view.

"Since school has begun, my son has had this Trump flag hanging in his background," the student's mother, Tiffany, told the news outlet. Their last names have been withheld from reports.

According to the student's mother, the teacher told her son, "You can sit up, remove the flag, or reposition your camera within the next 15 seconds or I'm kicking you out of class."

In a video of the incident, recorded by another student and included in the news video below, the teacher can be heard counting to 15 seconds while repeating the threat.

Colusa Student Says Teacher Threatened To Kick Him Out Of Virtual Class Over Trump Flag youtu.be

As the video shows, the teacher wasn't able to complete the count before the student decided to sign off from the class on his own. He can be seen waving to the camera before the screen goes black.

According to KOVR-TV, the teacher has since apologized. The student's mother said she isn't blaming the teacher so much as she is the school board for not giving clear guidance on the issue.

"She is a new teacher and it's a mistake," she said. "There hasn't been any guidance given to her as a teacher for the school."

Tiffany said that when she reached out to a board representative requesting a clarification for the code of conduct, she was rejected.

"He flat out told me no. We've just not been given any guidance," she said.

The Colusa County Code of Conduct includes a dress code ban for clothing with "vulgar, obscene, or profane" messages, or messages which "degrade any race or other group of individuals" — but nowhere in the document does it mention anything about politics or campaigns.

State Education Code 48907 states: "[Students] of the public schools, including charter schools, shall have the right to exercise freedom of speech and of the press including, but not limited to, the use of bulletin boards, the distribution of printed materials or petitions, the wearing of buttons, badges, and other insignia, and the right of expression in official publications, whether or not the publications or other means of expression are supported financially by the school or by use of school facilities, except that expression shall be prohibited which is obscene, libelous, or slanderous. Also prohibited shall be material that so incites pupils as to create a clear and present danger of the commission of unlawful acts on school premises or the violation of lawful school regulations, or the substantial disruption of the orderly operation of the school."

The student has reportedly not been punished over the incident.