CHARLOTTE — Cell phone video from inside a Charlotte-Mecklenburg middle school appears to show a teacher brazenly smoking in front of middle school students.
Eighth grader Amani Barner recorded the video at Randolph IB Middle School in southeast Charlotte. She told Channel 9′s Erika Jackson she doesn’t want the teacher back in the classroom.
Barner said something smelled off in her French classroom on Monday.
“I did smell a scent of cigarette smell, so I wasn’t sure, it kind of went over my head, but I wasn’t sure what to think about (the smell) at the time,” she said.
Barner said she took our her phone and began to record.
In the video, you can see puffs of smoke near students as they walk by the person Barner identifies as a teacher and one student can be seen waving away the smoke.
“He flicked a cigarette at another student who sat right behind me, which immediately alerted me,” Barner said.
Some parents picking up their students from Randolph Middle School said the video was circulating on social media. Vladimir Panew has a student at the school and hadn’t seen the video when Channel 9 showed it to her on Tuesday.
“Wow, it’s brazen,” Panew said. “After hearing about it and actually seeing it, the nonchalant stuff of it all was pretty bold.”
Barner said she showed an administrator the video at school on Monday.
The school’s principal notified parents an investigation into tobacco use on campus was underway and CMS confirmed the employee had been placed on administrative leave with pay.
(WATCH BELOW: Ninth grader hospitalized after being stomped on by other students)
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