Student attacks assistant principal

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - A high school student attacks an assistant principal on school grounds and it's all caught on video.

Lafayette School Corporation Superintendent Ed Eiler confirmed to NewsChannel 18, Monday morning at Lafayette Jefferson High School, a student attacked the school's assistant principal.

Eiler said students were gathered by the library.

The administrator in the video was hit by a bag of chips.

The administrator then tried to take the student to the office but the student refused to comply.

The administrator touched the student's elbow and that's when the student apparently grabbed the assistant principal's throat.

It took another teacher stepping in to pull the student off the assistant principal.

Eiler said all parties involved are fine, but the teacher who stepped in received a cut to his nose.

Eiler also said the student will be disciplined in accordance with board policy. The School corporation can not share the student's punishment with the media but Eiler said the punishment could potentially be severe.

"Obviously the assault of any school employee is a serious matter. If a staff member were assaulted, under Indiana law it is a class 'D' felony," said Eiler.

The scuffle happened in the hallways of Jefferson High School. It was snapped up on a smart phone and submitted to Youtube, where it was taken down less than 24 hours later.

"I was appalled, I re-watched it to see what was happening because the kid was just glued to the assistant principal. And the other teacher, it took him a while to get him off of him. And he wasn't compliant at all, and I thought that was ridiculous," said Jenny Smith, a student at Lafayette Jefferson.

But there are some still defending the student's innocence, his friends maintain the incident could have just been a big misunderstanding.

"It was a mistake, I mean he just smacked a bag of cheetos, I mean Jeff gets wild with a bunch of people running around, playing around. But he just smacked a bag of cheetos and it hit him in the head. Yeah that's not fair. I've known him since 6th grade, we went to Sunnyside together and he's not a troublemaker," Gabriel Gualjahara.

Lafayette Jeff Principal Jeff Studabaker said he has reviewed the security video and he's confident all of his staff involved did exactly as they were supposed to in the situation.