The First Rule of Fight Club? Teachers Can't Defend Themselves Against Students Who Hit Them
One of the first things new teachers learn is that you can't get physical with students, but are all bets off when a student throws the first punch? That’s the question being raised by video footage from a physical altercation between Santa Monica, Calif., science teacher Mark Black and an allegedly drug-dealing student.
Last Friday morning Black, a 30-year veteran at Santa Monica High School who is also the school’s wrestling coach, allegedly observed the student attempting to distribute marijuana in class. When Black tried to confiscate the drug paraphernalia, witnesses say the student resisted, punched the teacher in the face, and tried to stab him with a pencil.
As cell phone video footage shows, Black quickly defended himself and wrestled the student to the ground with a single-leg takedown, pinning the kid so he couldn't continue to hit him. The result? Black has been put on administrative leave.
One of Black’s former students, 36-year-old Los Angeles resident Timothy Conley, says he was motivated to start a Change.org petition asking for Black to be reinstated “because of the brash statements and rush to judgment” by Sandra Lyon, Santa Monica–Malibu Unified School District superintendent. In a statement, Lyon called the altercation “utterly alarming” and said "the kind of physical restraint used by the teacher is unacceptable,” reports the Los Angeles Times. Lyon went on to note that administrators “have been in contact with the student’s family, and we will work with them to offer the support that they may need.”
Some parents in the community are trying to claim, says Conley, that the incident was racially motivated because Black is white and the student is African American. Although the school-to-prison pipeline is undeniably a reality, Conley, who is also African American, disagrees. His own experience indicates the teacher isn't a racist who's targeting black male students.
Conley, a 1995 graduate of Santa Monica High School, says Black became a father figure and mentor to him, motivating him to improve his grades from a 2.1 GPA to a 3.3 GPA. “Had it not been for him, I wouldn't have earned a college athletic scholarship and made it to the NFL,” says Conley, who now works at the University of Southern California. Over the years, he adds, Black has mentored thousands of students in much the same way.
So what's the real problem? Conley says that what the superintendent needs to address is why students think they can blatantly use and distribute drugs at school. Even though there were gang-affiliated kids on campus in his day, Conley says this kind of behavior didn't happen. He attributes the shift to the school and district administration's lack of leadership and the eroding respect for teachers.
Daniel Jacobs, a 1999 Santa Monica alumnus who wrestled under Black, has also started a Change.org petition demanding an apology from Lyon. "The precedent will be set that students are permitted to act in complete disregard to laws, physically confront teachers, punch and push them...and if teachers do anything at all to protect themselves or their students, they will lose their jobs and experience a media smear campaign," writes Jacobs.
Although thousands of supporters have signed the petitions and liked a "We Support Coach Black of Samohi" petition, that doesn't change the education code. Although Black didn't throw a single punch, California is one of the states that doesn't allow corporal punishment. If the district finds that he violated policy, Black could be out of a job.