FRESNO, Calif. ( KSEE/KGPE ) – A Fresno Unified School District teacher is speaking out after she says she and one of her students were attacked in her classroom earlier this month.
McLane High School teacher Alison Mattox claims, that on Oct. 3, one of her students and their adult relative walked into her classroom and attacked another student.
“I got in between the two students to stop the fight, but the bullying student started swinging and hitting both the victim and myself,” Martin said.
Mattox says they gave her a concussion.
Fresno Unified Teachers Association President Manuel Bonilla says students and teachers deserve better.
The fight was not a surprise, though.
Mattox says the victim had been sending her screenshots of the bullying student’s threats for two weeks leading up to the attack.
She says she took the screenshots to a school counselor who agreed the bullying student should be suspended from cheer practice.
However, Mattox claims the bullying student’s mom refused to let her miss practice.
So Mattox says she took the issue to the Principal and Vice Principal but was told to enforce “restorative practices” between the bullying student and the victim, rather than use disciplinary measures.
“Instead of offering support, everything was put back onto me… They have been aware of these issues from the start and something should have happened and they should have stepped in,” Mattox said.
She says the students held a “restorative circle” to talk things out. It was apparently ineffective.
She says the next day, Oct. 3, the victim and several other students sat in her classroom during lunch.
Mattox says that’s when the bullying student and their middle-aged relative walked in and started attacking the victim.
“In the struggle, the adult relative was hitting me as well, pulling my hair. Unable to hold on any longer due to the assault, I let go of the bullying student and both her and her adult relative chased the victim down the hallway,” Mattox said.
She says she called for security, but claims the bullying student and the adult were gone before anyone caught them.
She does not believe that an adult has been arrested or cited since.
Bonilla says he considers this especially frustrating after there was a shooting near the school this year.
“Could you imagine the fact that somebody, an adult relative, was able to go onto a campus that should have been secure during lunch time, was able to assault a teacher and a student and able to then leave and not be apprehended,” Bonilla said.
He says the school should have been on high alert.
Yourcentralvalley.com reached out to FUSD for comment but did not hear back.
“All of our students deserve a safe space. All of our teachers deserve a safe space. And that’s obviously not happening. And this is just one example of it,” Bonilla said.
They encourage parents to attend school board meetings to advocate for stricter safety policies and are talking to lawyers about their next steps.
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