Police officers responding to an assault at Colerain High School (Law&Crime: Colerain Police bodycam screenshot)
A high school teacher in Ohio had to have a portion of her skull removed after a 16-year-old student, possibly under the influence of an unknown drug, attacked her in her classroom last month.
According to a news release from the Colerain, Ohio Police Department, school resource police officers responded at about 2:18 p.m. on Jan. 4 to a report of a teacher being assaulted by a student at Colerain High School at 8801 Cheviot Road.
Additional police officers and Colerain Township Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services personnel were dispatched to the school. They took the teacher to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center for treatment of serious injuries.
Police said their investigation led to a 16-year-old student — whose name is not being released — being arrested and charged with one count of felonious assault. The release noted that in addition to the criminal charges, the student would face discipline from the school district.
The assailant was also taken to the hospital, where he was treated and then released into police custody and taken to the Hamilton County Juvenile Detention Center.
Northwest Local School District said that the attack was an isolated incident and that the district “remains resolute” in its commitment to providing a safe and nurturing environment for all students and staff.
Hamilton County Prosecutor Melissa Powers later confirmed that the student is accused of repeatedly punching the teacher in the head, according to a report from Cincinnati, Ohio, ABC affiliate WCPO. Powers also reportedly confirmed that the teacher underwent surgery to have her skull cap removed to “prevent brain damage due to swelling.”
Police body camera footage obtained by Law&Crime provided additional details from the aftermath of the alleged attack.
In the footage, the teen can be seen wearing a black Adidas tracksuit, and as officers try to lead him out of the school, he appears to nearly collapse. The officers then bring the child into a nearby room and sit him in a chair.
“Did you take anything, smoke anything, drink anything,” one officer asks.
“I took a cart, I didn’t take no weed,” the 16-year-old responds. A “cart” is some kind of vape device, WCPO reported.
“Did someone give you something in the bathroom?” an officer asked.
“Yeah,” the teen responded.
“What was it?” the officer asks.
A school employee then asks if the boy is hurt, and the officers say that he is, noting that he appears to have hit his head.
“I think he was banging his head, I think against the glass,” another employee says.
School employees waiting outside of the room then point to a door and tell the officer that they believe the teen was hitting his head against it.
“He’s all over the place, sometimes we’re good, sometimes we’re up, his heart rate is at like 170,” the officer says.
After several minutes, the student tells police he was in a “dream-like state” but that he remembered attacking the teacher.
“She said she was going to call the police, and then I just started punching,” the juvenile said.
Asked who he was punching, the teen replied, “The teacher.”
An attorney representing the juvenile suspect told WCPO that they will have to wait for the results of medical exams to determine what, if any, drug the boy may have ingested.
“His behavior, his violent behavior, his erratic behavior, the attack, the assault was not the result of him trying to attack the teacher, it was the result of the impact an influence that the drugs had on him it made him that way,” the suspect’s attorney, Clyde Bennet, told the station. “He didn’t believe he was ingesting drugs he was just consuming a vape like a lot of juveniles and teenagers do.”
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