The father of a Clayton County biology teacher charged Wednesday with threatening a student apologized to the community for his son's actions, saying the teacher was stressed out and "between a rock and a hard place."

Travis Corey Heckstall, 34, was arrested Wednesday on disorderly conduct and terroristic threats charges for telling an unruly student he would "rip your eyeballs out" during a tirade days before the school year ended.

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Heckstall taught biology at Mount Zion High School since August and resigned May 30, about a week after the alleged incident, said school system spokesman Charles White.

His father is state Rep. Joe Heckstall (D-East Point). Heckstall, surrounded by relatives, attended his son's first-appearance hearing Thursday in Clayton Magistrate Court. Magistrate Bobby Simmons set a $20,000 bond, which the younger Heckstall said he'd be able to post. As of late Thursday afternoon, Heckstall was still in the county jail.

"He's apologized, he's remorseful," the elder Heckstall said. "He loves those kids and took them goodies all during the year. He would love to go back to teaching when this is over."

Heckstall said his son was allegedly threatened by the male student all year and didn't feel safe in the classroom. "There is no question this is uncharacteristic of my son, this is a situation that got out of hand," he said. "He complained to the administration about the student but was told to keep it in the classroom, to deal with it there. He was caught between a rock and a hard place."

Police said Heckstall confronted a male student May 21 after the boy threatened and cursed the teacher and disrupted the class. During the alleged incident, which police said was videotaped by other students with cellphones, students said Heckstall suddenly "started acting crazy," telling the class to "shut the [expletive] up."

Heckstall allegedly directed his anger toward the male student, telling him he would "rip your eyeballs out," urinate on him and "kill your family," according to the police report. Heckstall then spat on the floor and began to apologize, police said.

Heckstall told police the juvenile had a history of disciplinary problems and that he feared for his safety all year.

The cellphones with the videotaped incident were confiscated by police. Chief Jeff Turner said the images were captured and copied onto a DVD and placed into evidence, and are not subject to open records requests.

White, the school system spokesman, had no additional information about Heckstall's past performance, citing privacy policies. White also had no details on where Heckstall worked before coming to Clayton County.