Donations pour in for teacher who punched student
LOS ANGELES — Online donations are streaming in for a Maywood (Los Angeles County) high school music teacher who was arrested after a video went viral showing him punching a 14-year-old student in the face after the boy used a racial epithet and threw a basketball at him.
The fight Friday in the Maywood Academy High School classroom led to the arrest of teacher Marston Riley, 64, who is black, on suspicion of child abuse. Detectives with the Los Angeles County Sheriff ’s Department’s Special Victims Bureau are investigating.
Cecilia Diaz Jimenez, who says she works for the Los Angeles Unified School District and previously worked at Maywood Academy, started a GoFundMe page for Riley over the weekend. As of Monday night, more than 2,400 people had donated more than $61,000.
“Be mindful that the school district is looking at dismissing him and I would not doubt if the student’s parents are looking into pressing criminal charges,” Jimenez wrote on the GoFundMe page. “I am sure Mr. Riley will need money to pay any fines, fees and lawyers.”
On social media, scores of people defended Riley, saying that he was pushed to the brink and that the student was out of line for using a racial slur. However, some parents have expressed outrage over the incident.
“We all may have mixed feelings about what happened,” Jimenez wrote. “But please do know that this is not the first time that Mr. Riley is attacked; physically or verbally. He is a great person and a great teacher.”
Students told KTLA that the confrontation began after Riley asked the boy to leave the classroom because he wasn’t wearing a proper uniform.
Cell phone video from the classroom shows the boy standing next to his teacher, swearing at him and repeatedly using racial slurs.
Riley was arrested and booked at the East Los Angeles sheriff ’s station. He was released Saturday morning after posting $50,000 bail, according to Sheriff ’s Department inmate records. He is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 30, authorities said.