DeKalb superintendent: Students who allegedly hit teacher ‘are not criminals’

Three DeKalb County students are facing charges after allegedly initiating a physical altercation with a teacher, but Superintendent Devon Horton said he doesn’t think the students should be criminalized.

A short video of a fight involving several students and an adult circulated on social media last week, raising concerns about what led to the violence. The three Martin Luther King Jr. High School students were charged with battery and disrupting a public school. The teacher is on administrative leave while the district investigates the situation.

“They are not criminals, and we should not be criminalizing them,” Horton said Tuesday at a news conference about the situation. “And to be honest, there’s more to it than meets the eye.”

The district does not share details about ongoing investigations or personnel matters, but Horton said investigators are working to learn whether there were any triggers that escalated the situation. He also said the district is trying to determine what challenges the teacher was facing in the situation.

“I would say that there are some factors that we’re aware of that could have prevented this,” he said.

Teaching conflict resolution has been a priority for DeKalb County, the state’s third-largest school system, for several years. The district has trained almost 400 staff members in restorative practices and is training staff in deescalation strategies, Horton said.

It has hired 45 face advocates, or mentors who work with the district’s most dysregulated students, including those who frequently have discipline problems or are chronically absent. Of the students who work with face advocates, 66% have zero referrals this year, Horton said.

One of the students involved in the fight had been at that school only a month, he said.

Martin Luther King Jr. High School principal Michael Alexander said during a news conference he believes a recent fight at the school was an isolated incident. (Miguel Martinez/AJC)

Horton also pointed out the district has had thousands fewer suspensions this year compared to the previous two years, and a slight increase in attendance.

“Does that moment define our culture in our district? Does it define the culture in our school?” Horton asked of the incident. “It does not.”

But the video caught the attention of the Georgia Federation of Teachers, which called it a sign of a growing crisis of violence against teachers. The organization is asking state lawmakers to consider penalizing the parents of students who are violent toward their instructors.