A teacher at a school in Utah is facing charges of child abuse after he was caught on camera allegedly slamming a 14-year old student into a wall on Thursday, before pushing them to the ground.
Anthony Robbie Chidester, 40, from Eagle Mountain charter school, faces one count of child abuse but has claimed in a statement that relentless bullying by the student made him lose control.
Chidester said had a 'disagreement' with one particular student who was not following instructions.
Surveillance video coupled with color footage from a student's cellphone video shows clearly what happened in the gym and hallway at the school.
In the short clip, the teacher can be seen grabbing a 14-year old boy and pushing him against the wall before dragging him to the floor.
Anthony Robbie Chidester, 40, was fired after allegedly shoving a student into a wall and then throwing them to the floor
Other students then rush towards the pair and surround them.
Dillan Bunker who is a classmate of the victim said it all began after a girl in his PE class received a phone call.
'The teacher grabbed for the phone and elbowed her in the face,' Bunker said to Fox13. '[The student] thought it was on purpose, and he stood up and was like, 'Hey don't do that.''
Although the gym class went ahead as normal, it was just as the balls were being put away that things escalated between Chidester and the student when the alleged assault occurred.
'He's dribbling the ball, right, and the teacher goes, "Give it to me. And stop dribbling it,"' Bunker said.
'[The student] goes, "I'm putting it away, like you said."' And he goes, "Stop dribbling it.' So [the student] puts it in the closet. And the teacher grabs him, flips him around, into like a little hallway."
Surveillance footage and cellphone video shows a student being thrown to the ground
