Thousands of dollars have been crowdfunded for a 64-year-old California high school music teacher who was recorded delivering a beatdown to a 14-year-old student last week who had “called him the N-word,” CBS News reported.
Marston Riley, the shocking video evidence shows, became enraged during band class at Maywood Academy High School and repeatedly struck a student who disrespected him and abused him with racial slurs.
According to CBS Los Angeles, the classroom brawl began when the teacher told the student to leave because he wasn’t wearing his uniform. Student witnesses, apparently prepared for this confrontation to escalate, started recording. The videos captured the racial slurs and the ensuing violence. Both the teacher and the student threw punches.
The response to this brawl has been mixed. While some upset parents voiced concerns about a teacher hitting a child, others have defended Riley, saying this wasn’t the first time he was subjected to abuse in the classroom.
Riley was arrested on suspicion of child abuse and his bail was set at $50,000. He was released on Saturday after posting bail and will be arraigned on Nov. 30.
Cecilia Diaz Jimenez, however, started a GoFundMe campaign with the express purpose of helping Riley offset legal bills and bail. She identified herself as an employee in the same school district and said she worked at Maywood Academy High School for three years, up until last June.
Here’s what she wrote there:
Mr. Riley is a music teacher at Maywood Academy High School. He has earned the respect of many teachers, staff and students. Unfortunately, over the past few years unpleasant events have happened to him. Despite all that has happened, he has continued to do what he loves the most, to teach music.
Today, another distasteful event happened to Mr. Riley. Many of you have seen the video, which I will not post here. And sadly, he was handcuffed and was sent to jail.
Those who want to donate for his bail and or lawyers please do so and share. All of what is donated will go to him.
We all may have mixed feelings about what happened. 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.
Jimenez would later say that although Riley was released on Saturday she was going to keep the GoFundMe up and running because “he is going to need all the help he can get,” since the “school district is looking at dismissing him and I would not doubt if the student’s parents are looking into pressing criminal charges.”
At the time of this writing, more than $35,000 of the $50,000 goal has been raised.
[Image via CBS News screengrab]
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