Teacher punches HS student, knocks him to floor amid their fight — allegedly after student used racial slur against teacher

A 27-year-old substitute teacher repeatedly punched a Las Vegas high school student and knocked him to a hallway floor amid their fight caught on video Thursday — and KLAS-TV reported that it occurred after the student allegedly used a racial slur against the teacher.

What are the details?

Sources told the station that the Clark County School District Police Department is using video recorded inside Valley High School as evidence.

KLAS, citing sources, noted in its video report that the student used a racial slur against the teacher, and that it all allegedly started in a classroom when the teacher asked the student to leave after he used the N-word.

A longer raw video of the fight shows the smaller student continually going after and swinging at the larger teacher, even though the teacher easily knocks the student to the floor not once but twice. Other students intervene, and the teacher walks away amid a throng of onlookers.

Another raw clip offers a close-up of the teacher knocking the student to the floor for the final time, hovering over him, hitting him in the head, and yelling, "Are you crazy?" After schoolmates bring the student to his feet, the teacher — whose shirt is torn open — hollers, "You lost your motherf***ing mind, boy!" But the apparently dazed student hollers what sounds like, "You're goin' to jail, [N-word]!" at the teacher and actually laughs before a campus security monitor leads the student away.

School district police identified the teacher as 27-year-old Re’Kwon Smith, KLAS said.

Smith is charged with battery resulting in serious bodily harm, assault on a school pupil on school property/vehicle/activity, threatening to do bodily harm to a public school student, and interfering with a student from attending school, the station said.

KLAS said Smith is being held at the Clark County Detention Center on $9,000 bail, and he's scheduled to appear in court Friday.

The district hired Smith in November and assigned him to the high school, the station said, adding that police said the district will remove Smith from the substitute pool, and he's no longer eligible to serve as a substitute in the district.

While KLAS said the student also was arrested, KNTV-TV said its sources indicated the student is recovering in a hospital.

Another student told KNTV that the student in the video — a close friend — is "in the hospital right now, but he said he doesn't remember that good what happened ... he has a concussion, and he has scratches all over his face."

KLAS said the district issued a statement Thursday: “Violence in any form is unacceptable and goes against the fundamental principles of education and respect. Any altercation between a teacher and a student is thoroughly investigated, and appropriate disciplinary action is taken.”

This story has been updated.

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