Adding to the shocking spate of school violence across the nation, a
74-year-old Indiana substitute teacher claims he suffered a gruesome
black eye from a teen — and teachers stopped him being arrested.

Shellshocked Rob Gooding, of Indianapolis, told News 8 he was
serving as a substitute at Perry Meridian High School on February 1
when an unruly student suddenly approached him during a business
class.

The hulking teen — who Gooding claims stood over 6 feet — raised his
Chromebook and was poised to crash it down on his head.

“I saw him come up, and he said, ‘I’ve had it,’ and he came down and
I blocked the Chromebook. That’s where the hole was,” Gooding said,
pointing to a wound on his forearm.

“This man child was 6-feet-2, 280 pounds,” he said.

But the student then shoved the elderly instructor to the ground in
front of shocked students and rained down punches on his head.

“He hovered over me and with his left hand whammed me,” Gooding told
the station.

Paramedics rushed to the scene and found the dazed teacher suffering
from a grisly knot on his forehead and a deep black eye.

Gooding told a school resource officer who arrived with the
emergency crews he wanted his assailant arrested and prosecuted.

But the officer told him school administrators forbade him from
doing so.

“Then he said to me, ‘We have been instructed by the higher-ups,
which is the district, not to handcuff, or arrest the kid,’ and I
said, ‘What?’ and he said, ‘Yes, that came from the higher-ups,’”
Gooding said.

School officials told News 8 that they were unable to comment on
what, if any, disciplinary measures were taken against the teen.

“Perry Police responded to the incident quickly,” read a statement
from the Perry Township School District. “A police report was
forwarded to the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office. Prosecutors will
then make a criminal charge decision.”

But weeks later Gooding said he hasn’t been contacted by any party
concerning the case.

“He has to be accountable for his actions and that’s what I feel,”
Gooding said.

Attacks on teachers by students have become increasingly common,
with sometimes lethal consequences.

A beloved Texas teacher’s aide died this month after he was pushed
to the ground and struck his head.

Fred Jimenez, 73, was buried this past Sunday after serving at a San
Antonio High School for more than a decade.

His shattered wife of 25 years, Margo Jimenez, told The Post that
school administrators downplayed the incident to her, never relaying
that he had been pushed.

In another case recent case, a 15-year-old Ohio high school student
allegedly punched a teacher in the head after hitting a vape —
leaving her with a “severe brain injury” that required the removal
of her skullcap.

https://nypost.com/2024/02/28/us-news/indiana-teacher-bob-gooding-
says-school-refused-to-arrest-student-who-hit-him/