California Parent Sends Elementary School Teacher to the Hospital After Fight About Masks

 

A California parent allegedly left an elementary school teacher bruised and bloodied after a fight about masks on Wednesday.

The incident took place at Sutter Creek Elementary School at the end of the first day back.

“The teacher was bleeding,” Amador County Unified School District Superintendent Torie Gibson told KCRA 3. “He had some lacerations on his face, some bruising on his face, and a pretty good knot on the back of his head.”

Gibson explained that the father was outraged and yelled at the school’s principal when he saw his daughter walk out of the building wearing a mask. When a male teacher stepped in, the situation escalated to an actual fight.

The school’s policy is that everyone needs to wear masks, but teachers who have proved they are fully vaccinated can take off their mask indoors if students are not present, according to the KCRA report.

A letter Gibson sent to families said that “assaulting a staff member will never be tolerated on any school campus” and called for people to “take a breath, pause, listen and walk away if necessary.”

“Remember, we are not the ones making the rules/mandates, we are the ones required to follow/enforce them if we want to keep our doors open and students at school five days a week,” the letter said.

The teacher was treated at the hospital and released that evening.

The parent is no longer allowed on campus, but their child is.

“If it’s appropriate to press charges, we will do that,” Gibson told the local station. “If they tell me it’s not appropriate, I will trust them.”