You Won't Believe Why a Math Teacher Allegedly Threw Knock-Out Punch at 80-Pound Middle School Boy -- or What Happened After the Kid Woke Up

Middle school student Reginald Wells, who stands just under five-feet tall and weighs 80 pounds, was knocked out with a punch to the face last Friday by someone he never expected would hit him.

Allegedly one of his teachers

And apparently all over a joke over football.

(Image source: KMBT-TV)

Wells, 12, attends Willie Ray Smith Middle School in Beaumont, Tex. and told KBMT-TV he cracked a joke to an assistant teacher from his math class about the teacher's favorite football team.

Then things escalated.

"All of a sudden he just hit me, in my shoulder... and I looked at him like 'what the heck?'" Wells told KMBT, adding that he then pushed the teacher's shoulder.

That's when Wells claims the teacher punched him in the face, knocking him out, KMBT said, adding that Wells said he woke up a few seconds later.

(Image source: KMBT)

"The left side of my face was numb... my lip hurt... my head was hurt, like it had been shaken."

Wells' mother Adrianne told KMBT the principal briefed her on what happened, based on what another teacher reportedly witnessed — particularly that her son was "uppercut and then slid across the floor."

"It weighed heavy on my heart, because I've never put my hands on my son," she told KMBT.

KMBT added that the assistant teacher was fired and escorted from the premises, but not arrested. Before being removed, the assistant teacher told Wells, "I can't apologize for what I did. I was just having a bad day and I just snapped."

Wells' mother told KMBT she can't believe the teacher was not arrested: "For you to just let a teacher do that to him and just walk off, he's fired and walks off, I can't accept that."

Adrianne filed a report with police and wants to press charges, but she told KMBT that no one with the school district has contacted her since Friday and she's now seeking legal representation.

Beaumont Independent School District sources later confirmed to KMBT that Michael Fisher, 24, allegedly is the teacher accused of punching Wells and that he's cooperating with police and feels remorseful and sad.

(Image source: KMBT)

KMBT adds that police are pursuing a charge of injury to a child against Fisher.

Here's the initial report from KMBT:

(H/T: Deadspin)

--

[related]