A white high school teacher in Louisville, Kentucky, was fired last month after he was involved in a physical altercation with one of his Black students.
Insider reports William Bennett, a science teacher at Marion C. Moore School in Louisvile, was fired in December three months after he was caught on video fighting 16-year-old Jamir Strane. An investigation by Jefferson County Public Schools found Bennett used excessive force while pinning Strane to the ground.
Meanwhile, according to documents obtained by Insider, an unnamed witness told authorities that he overheard Bennett tell Strane he was “just another Black boy that got shot.”
Strane reiterated the unnamed source’s remarks during an interview with KMOV4, telling the news outlet that Bennett told him “You’re going to end up in the streets dead.”
According to Strane, the fight started after Bennett objected to the mask he was wearing, which resulted in a physical altercation.
“As I’m transitioning into my fourth period class, which is chemistry, going to his classroom, he tells me I’m not able to walk into his classroom with the bandana that I have on, but it’s a face mask,” Strane recalled. “This is the first time, but I’ve worn it before in the classroom, that’s why I don’t get what he’s saying.”
Strane added, “I understand I was in the wrong, but you don’t have a right to put your hands on me.”
Strane’s mother, Erica Strane, on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against Bennett and Jefferson County Public Schools, her lawyer, Aubrey Williams, told Insider. The lawsuit alleges that Bennett pinned Strane to the ground and pummeled him, while “yelling obscenities, profanity and racial slurs at him.”
As a result, the lawsuit alleges that Strane suffered ”physical, mental, emotional stress, strain, and humiliation.”
