DALLAS — The legal team representing a Dallas ISD staffer accused of punching a Kimball High School student says the charges have been dismissed.
The incident happened on April 14, 2023, and was partially captured on video. The video was shared on social media showing one of the school’s hall monitors punching a 17-year-old student.
The staffer's legal team with Wyde & Associates says he was acting in self-defense. WFAA reached out to the district and the District Attorney's office for comment and waiting to hear back.
“There’s a lot of issues going on in this school,” said Bobby Higgs, whose grandchild attends the school.
Higgs and other parents saw the video of the alleged assault and called it disturbing.
“I think that the leadership needs to pay more attention to the people who are being hired to work with our kids,” said Higgs.
Dallas ISD Police Department and central office staff also showed a presence at Kimball High School after hearing students were planning to stage walkouts.
Some of the students were allegedly planning to leave school in support of the student who was hit. Parents said other students were planning to leave the campus in support of the accused hall monitor.
Some parents are also raising concerns over alleged youth gang violence on the Kimball High School campus.
A Dallas ISD staffer said the school provided space in the building for students to gather and voice their concerns.
“We understand that some of the kids are bad and they get out of hand, and I’m not going to deny that at all. I’ve spent time in the classroom. I do understand that. But, as an adult, we have to be smarter,” said Higgs.
In a lengthy telephone conversation with the accused hall monitor, he explained the circumstances that he said led up to hitting the student. However, the man said he didn’t want to go on record, yet, with too many details.
The worker said the video clip that’s circulating across social media appears to have been edited and doesn’t tell the entire story.
“This is really something I didn’t want to happen. It’s painting a bad image of myself and the school I graduated from,” the man explained. “Working at my alma mater has been a blessing. I’m not the guy that’s being painted on social media.”
According to sources, police are working to retrieve video from inside the school in order to get better context into what happened on Friday.
NOTE: The following video was uploaded in April 2023.