Kentucky Teacher Fired After Telling Black Student And Gunshot Victim He Was ‘Just Another Black Boy Who Got Shot’

A Kentucky teacher who was seen in a viral video pinning a student to the ground and pulling his hair has been fired from his school.

According to Business Insider, William Bennett, a former science teacher at the Marion C. Moore School in Louisville, Kentucky was terminated last month after an investigation determined Bennett “escalated the situation” and made “inappropriate comments” about the student.

In the incident, which occurred last August, started when Bennett said something to 16-year-old Jamir Strane regarding him being shot. An unnamed student said in the report that Bennett told Strane he was “just another Black boy that got shot.”

The comment set off Strane, who responded by punching Bennett in the back of the head.

The teacher then chased Strane down and tackled him, putting his full weight on the boy. In the video, Bennett was seen pulling Strane’s hair as other students yelled at him to let go of the boy.

Eventually another adult intervened, and Strane walked away from Bennett. However, the teacher continued to follow the boy down the hallway, verbally attacking him and kicking him.

Local outlets reported Strane was shot in a drive-by shooting in 2020 and he hit Bennett after he told Strane he was “going to end up dead in the streets.”

Bennett had other issues on a teaching record. An open records request by WHAS11 showed he was suspended for five days in 2019 at North Bullet High School for leaving his class unattended and making inappropriate comments. The charge was later dismissed as some of Bennett’s actions were justified.

Traci Hunt, the principal of Marion C. Moore school, told district investigators that Bennet previously refused to complete the school’s mandatory implicit bias training and was involved in a prior incident with a school counselor.

Black students and teachers have been attacked at their schools in recent years as school in general has become more violent. In Louisiana, a group of Black fathers founded Dads on Duty at Southwood High School after the institution was plagued with violent altercations daily.

After the group of about 40 fathers began patrolling the school’s hallways, it hasn’t had a single incident of violence.