A high school science teacher in Georgia is now on paid administrative leave after he was apparently filmed in class betting that one of his students would be shot in the head, The New York Times says. Physics teacher Paul Hagan was caught in a 26-second video clip telling a student at Rockdale Career Academy, "Don't smile at me, man, okay? That's how people like you get shot."
Hagan, who is white, said to the black student, "I got a bet. I bet by the time you're 21, someone's going to put a bullet right through your head, okay? And it might be me, the one that does it."
The male student's mother, April Carr, discovered the video when her daughter brought it to her attention late last week. "The one thing that I never wanted for [my son] was to feel any type of racism where he felt like he was being targeted simply because he's an African-American male," Carr said to the Times.
Carr revealed that the incident emerged out of her son and his friends laughing during Hagan's lesson. Although he spoke out of great frustration, Carr confirmed that Hagan did apologize to her son. "I believe that he did like his teacher, and he believed that his teacher liked him," she said.
Carr has filed a report with the Rockdale County Sheriff's Department, and the Rockdale County school district is analyzing the situation after placing Hagan on paid administrative leave. Carr understandably isn't on board with Hagan only being put on leave, writing on Facebook, "I am outraged...I will not stop until he is removed from teaching and held accountable."
"I hate that my son had to be the example," she said to the Times.. "But this is about awareness and fairness. We don't send our kids to school to be threatened. We send them to be educated and protected."