Video: Teacher appears to attack student for eating on school bus

MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Cellphone video captured the moment on Monday afternoon when a Mooresville Graded School District teacher and a 14-year-old student, Nyheem Ingram, got into an altercation on the bus.

N.F. Woods doesn’t serve meals so at lunchtime, students are bused to Mooresville High School where they get in line for a meal.

“I never would have expected to see a teacher, like ever in my life, put their hands on a student,” said a classmate who saw the fight.

NF Woods students said they only get 30 minutes to eat.

“Our lunchtime also gets taken away by our bus ride,” the classmate told Channel 9′s Jonathan Lowe.

The video shows what happened before the fight.

Ingram was trying to eat while a teacher told him to get off.

“There’s no food on the bus,” the teacher could be heard saying in the video.

“The bus driver said I could eat on the bus,” Ingram said. “She told me to sit in the back, so I could throw it in the trash after I get done.”

Ingram told the teacher in the video that he was hungry and didn’t eat breakfast.

The situation escalated after that.

Ingram appeared to strike the teacher’s legs and after that, the teacher appeared to put his hands around the child’s neck.

“And that’s because he had put his hands on me,” the student said. “He smacked my food out my hand, but you couldn’t see that in the video.”

Lowe spoke with other students on the bus who said they think the teacher made a big deal out of nothing.

“I think it’s stupid,” the classmate said. “He should have just left him alone. He was just eating.”

Ingram’s mom was still processing what happened when Lowe spoke with her.

“Devastated. My kid’s not safe,” she said.

Ingram’s mother said she’s also confused as to why the incident escalated to this point.

“If he refused to throw the food away, just write him up, give him some type of disciplinary hearing,” the mother said. “I don’t see nobody doing all of that.”

Mooresville police confirmed that they are aware of the incident and are reviewing on-bus surveillance video and cellphone recordings.

Officials with the Mooresville Graded School District said they were aware of the allegations, as well.

“We can assure you that MGSD takes these matters very seriously,” they said in a statement. “Our district’s Human Resources Department is conducting a thorough investigation and is working in collaboration with the Mooresville Police Department on this matter. NC General Statute protects the confidentiality of employee records so we will not be releasing additional information at this time.”

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