The video already looked bad: a JCPS teacher pinning a Black student to the ground and then continuing to fight with him after he had been pulled off by a different adult.
Now, it looks even worse.
Jamir Strane, 16, talked to both WAVE 3 and WDRB yesterday, claiming that he punched the teacher first after the white man told Strane, “You’re just going to be another Black boy shot.”
Strane had tried to enter the teacher’s classroom, but the teacher objected to the face mask Strane had on, which the teacher called a bandanna, according to his narrative.
It turns out, according to Strane, he already has been shot. His mother, Erica Strane, told the news that Jamir was hit with gunfire a year ago. Strane even showed a scar from the bullet wound to the camera operators.
This is a kid who has been traumatized, according to his mother. Erica Strane said she thinks the teacher’s words triggered her son’s PTSD.
And, it seems that he’s had friends who have also been exposed to violence.
In his WDRB interview, Strane described what his teacher said to him as follows: “He said, ‘You’re just going to be another Black boy shot.’ Let me put it in English. He said, you’re just going to end up in the streets dead. In my mind. Like all my friends.”
More children have been killed in Louisville from Jan. 1 through Aug. 11 of this year than in all of 2020, according to an investigation by the Courier Journal. That adds up to 16 kids under the age of 18 — all but one killed with a gun.
The school system says it has pulled the teacher involved out of the classroom while it investigates what happened.
The school has not yet confirmed who the teacher is, although Strane told WDRB and WAVE that it was his chemistry teacher, William Bennett. LEO sent a Facebook message to an account believed to be the teacher but has yet to receive a response. Erica Strane declined an interview with LEO, saying she is working on securing an attorney.
JUST IN: Fight between student and teacher at Moore High School in Louisville, Kentucky leaves students and parents protesting at the high school
— United States News Block (@USNewsBlock) August 23, 2021
The video of the fight, which was posted to social media yesterday, begins while the altercation is already in process.
In the video taken at the combined middle and high school, the student — who Strane says is him — is struggling as other students attempt to pull the teacher off Strane.
“Yo, man, get the fuck off him,” someone yells.
“Can you get security?” the teacher asks.
The pinned student is able to free his hands during the scuffle to hit the teacher several times.
Eventually, another adult enters the shot. He pulls the teacher off the student, but the teacher knees the student in the face and grabs the student’s hair, holding on for several seconds.
The other adult appears to try and pull the teacher’s hand off of the student’s hair before the video ends.
WAVE 3 reported that Strane sustained a skinned knee from the fight.
Marion C. Moore is a combined middle and high school in the Highview neighborhood of Louisville. Around one-third of its students are Black.
This story has been updated to more accurately reflect Jamir Strane’s account of what started the fight. Strane says his teacher thought his face mask was a bandanna. LEO also sent an email asking JCPS for more information yesterday, but it failed to deliver. A second email for additional comment has been sent.