Make wishtv.com your home page

Video shows teacher having a meltdown over disappearance of rubber bands

ANTIOCH (KRON) – Video shows an Antioch substitute school teacher losing his cool in front of his class, possibly over the disappearance of rubber bands.

The video is shocking to watch and to listen to. It shows an Antioch Middle School substitute teacher yelling and screaming and waving his hands, clearly upset at one of the students in the class.

This sixth-grade substitute teacher is clearly agitated and has lost his composure, the video shows. One of the students shot the video on her phone during class on Monday afternoon, and it appears to show the lack of composure over the disappearance of a box of rubber bands.

It is unclear what the circumstances were that led up to the outburst. The video was provided to WISH-TV’s sister station KRON by a school employee who did not want to be identified out of fear of reprisal.

The employee who provided the video said teachers are frustrated by a lack of discipline in the school and perhaps that is why this teacher lost his cool.

We don’t know a lot about the teacher except that he is a long-time substitute for the district, and that he will no longer be teaching because of this incident.

The principal confirmed the incident happened on Monday in the sixth-grade classroom at Antioch Middle School.

The Human Resources department will be conducting a full investigation, the principal said. The principal said he did see the video and characterizes the teacher’s behavior “as reaching the breaking point.”

The Antioch Unified School District has issued the following statement on the incident:

Late yesterday, administration at Antioch Middle School learned that a substitute teacher had lost his temper with students in a sixth grade classroom. Staff took immediate and decisive steps to ensure that the substitute was removed from the classroom and the campus. Police were immediately notified and students in the classroom will receive counseling as needed. The actions of this individual in no way reflect the values of our schools or our District. We take all instances of student safety seriously and will ensure that appropriate and conclusive steps are taken as determined by the outcome of the investigation.”

The parents of the student who was singled out in the video were contacted about the incident.KRON’s Bonnie Hitch contributed to this report