A New York high school gym teacher has been arrested after he was caught on camera slamming a 14-year-old black student into the walls and then tossing him to the ground. Colin McNally, 58, was arrested from the ground of Benjamin N. Cardozo High School in Bayside after police were called to the scene. He has been charged with endangering a child.
According to authorities, the boy was playing basketball in the school gym when McNally took his ball for an apparent reason. The incident happened in front of other students, with not too many mustering courage to stop McNelly from bashing up the black boy.
Brutal Attack
The incident happened on Wednesday around 11:15 am at Benjamin N. Cardozo High School in Bayside where McNally is a physical education teacher and boys' varsity tennis coach, according to police. The student had just finished playing basketball in the gym when McNally grabbed his ball for an unspecified reason and made his way to the dean's office.
According to a criminal complaint, as McNelly began walking with the basketball to the dean's office, the adolescent continued to ask him to return it, police said. According to footage obtained by WABC-TV, the black student appeared to try to take the basketball when McNally abruptly grabbed him by the jacket, smashed him against a hallway wall, and then tossed him to the ground.
The video shows the wild tussle, with the strongly-built McNally throwing the boy to the ground as stunned fellow students looked on. One student tried to intervene but stopped midway as McNelly was too furious and dragged the boy up again, and once more pushed him to the wall.
The boy wasn't hurt seriously but McNelly was arrested.
Unlike a Teacher
The video shows that during the confrontation, the basketball once drops to the ground when another student tries to intervene but stops. Although the entire things last for just 16 second the brutal bashing has traumatized many students.
Following his arrest, McNelly admitted to have bashed up the black teen student. "I pushed a kid against the wall and then I pushed him to the ground," McNally said, according to the complaint.
A spokesperson for the DOE told Eyewitness News, which obtained the video: "These are incredibly disturbing allegations, and Mr. McNally was immediately removed from the classroom away from students, pending the outcome of the investigation."
The incident comes just three months after a Florida woman was arrested for reportedly punching a student in the face after the girl claimed the instructor used the "N-word" in class.
Caroline 'Melanie' Lee, a 60-year-old English teacher, was arrested in November and placed into the Duval County Jail on a charge of child abuse. She appeared in court for the first time on Saturday.
According to The Florida Times-Union, Lee was arrested after calling a student into her classroom for a private conversation. She then allegedly punched the student in the face, leaving the youngster with a bloody nose. She was forbidden from contacting the victim and was ordered to keep away from the school by a judge.
It is not known if there is a racism angle to McNelly's incident.
