[Editor's note: a video linked to this story contains profane language and fighting.]
Social media is flooded with confrontation videos: high school kids fighting each other, grown men beating each other up in parking lots and shopping malls, and event altercations.
What happens when the fights take over the classroom, but the combatants are a teacher and student? Students across the country want to instigate trouble with their teachers, just to catch their reactions on video and spread the shame on social media.
One specific video went viral eight years ago, and it’s been making the rounds again this past month.
On Nov. 2, 2018, at Maywood Academy High School, a traditional high school in the troubled, bankrupt, failing Los Angeles Unified School District, a teacher hit a student.
Music teacher Marston Riley was teaching at Maywood Academy High School when a 14-year-old student became argumentative, disrespectful, and belligerent, refusing to wear his uniform, then coming back into the classroom when the teacher had told him to leave.
The child wanted to start a fight. One of the students was rolling his smartphone camera to capture the confrontation. After repeated attempts to deal with the student, Mr. Riley snapped, took a swing at the minor, and a massive brawl erupted. The fight turned the entire music room upside down as students fled for safety to avoid the fight between the enraged teacher and the insolent student.
The teacher was escorted off the property later that day, never to return.
He was later charged with misdemeanor assault, to which he pled “not guilty.”
A year and a half later, just before the federal and state governments started shutting down schools and other public spaces over the COVID-19 outbreak, Riley went public to give his side of the story.
CBS reports:
"What they showed was me hitting the student," he said. "They didn't show anything before that."
"When I got to that student, particularly, he didn't have his uniform," he said. "When I asked him for it, he became belligerent."
"He hit me with a basketball, so I decided I needed to call security one more time. Once he finished talking, then I just turned and walked away, and called security. And, again all that happened before the cameras started rolling — in other words, what everybody saw was the second time he came into the classroom. He got worse and worse. The less I did, the worse he got, and it finally came to an altercation."
"I tried to avoid it," he said. "I took what I took, and I didn't want it to go there, but it went there. If he wanted to avoid something like that, you don't leave and then come back."
The power of the camera mitigates the confusion from “He said, "She said,” or “Teacher said, student said.” Riley had every right to give his side, but the public can still draw their own conclusions.
I don’t doubt the teacher’s narration. Multiple accounts confirmed that the student refused to comply and cooperate. Far too many in the public do not understand that teachers face an egregious level of disrespect from students, and on a routine basis. Students have quickly learned over the last 10 years that they have more power than the teachers, and the administrators are more afraid of the race card and civil rights lawsuits than ensuring the safety and well-being of the students — and the teachers!
Riley was facing a near-certain conviction in court if the jurors saw the video. Yet such an outcome is mere conjecture, since the LA County District Attorney dropped the case, most likely in response to a plea agreement since Riley completed a 10-week anger management course.
I will give my judgment of the whole scenario.
First, Mr. Riley was wrong to hit the kid. The kid deserved a rap on the mouth, but not from the teacher’s hand, and not in the classroom. The teacher’s impulsive physical response did not resolve the situation. In general, children should receive repeated smacks on the bottom with a paddle, in my view, for repeated insolence. Regarding the Maywood Academy situation, though, Riley went about it all wrong how he did it, where, and with all the children adversely affected. None of that was good.
Having said the above, I also believe that it was right and just that Riley was not convicted of anything. The LA County District Attorney’s staff stated that they considered the teacher’s age, as well as the fact that he had no prior record of wrongdoing. I would have added that compassion and commiseration would have affected a potential jury — if they had heard about all the prior issues with the student — and they would have acquitted the teacher. I would have! Teachers are human beings, and as I have shared above, they are subjected to a constant barrage of pressures, posturing, and outright punk-like behavior from students — and parents! Of course Riley tried to hit the kid! Who would stand and endure such abuse, and endure such constant disrespect over and over?
It’s no surprise that then and now, the public generated considerable comment and conversation around the Riley-Maywood Academy incident. In the end, all things worked out for Mr. Riley’s good: he retired before he faced professional sanction, he received incredible love and support from the community, and he retired and moved on to other projects.
One would think that resolution would have ended the discussion eight years ago.
On Friday, July 3, 2026, the Oddcrimes Instagram account reposted the confrontation, as though the teacher and student had only recently come to blows. The Instagram post provides a decent summary, but this phrase stands out:
The incident quickly sparked a nationwide debate, with many community members and former students rallying behind Riley by raising nearly $200,000 to help cover his legal expenses.
The social media account took the teacher’s side, and rightly so. The focus on the national scope of the controversy matters, as well. Indeed, the conversation around the controversy consumed many on social media at the time, but the discussion has resumed in the last few months. The public has likely long forgotten this, but despite the incendiary nature of the video, the teacher received a considerable outpouring of support.
Here’s X account @parkersity_9 reposting the video on August 26th, 2026, with the following description:
This high school Teacher was Arrested after he Beat The Dog Brakes Off a 14 Year Old Student in an Epic Squabble in the Classroom
This account does not pick a side, although the post glibly relates that the student received a massive humbling at the hands of the (understandably) irate teacher.
The conversation about the consequences of teacher abuse and student disrespect must continue, but administrators and elected officials need to provide results. If public education has any hope of avoiding future cuts, declining enrollment, and diminishing trust, schools need to make respect in the classroom a top priority once again. Students must face rigorous and immediate discipline for the lack of respect toward teachers — and other students, for that matter. Otherwise, there will be more Marston Rileys who lose their temper and take matters into their own hands to maintain order in their classrooms.