Teacher beaten on camera

BALTIMORE, Maryland, April 9, 2008 (NBC) -- A Baltimore, Maryland teacher says she was beaten by a student inside her classroom in an attack that was caught on camera.

The chief of Baltimore City school police said he had not been notified about the attack, but will begin an investigation.

Jolita Berry said the attack happened Friday at Reginald F. Lewis High School.

The video, taken from a cell phone, showed up on MySpace.

It shows a classroom fight, and Berry said the person at the bottom being beaten is her.

Berry, an art teacher, said she told a student to sit down and behave just before the attack occurred.

"I looked over, and her friends were cheering her on," Berry said. "And before I knew it, she hit me in the face."

Other teachers helped break up the fight.

Berry said she was shocked by the response she received from the school's principal.

"On one hand, she told me that she is sorry that his happened to me," Berry said. "But then she turned right around and told me that telling a student that I was going to defend myself was a trigger word. I triggered them."

Story Created: Apr 9, 2008 at 5:48 PM EDT

Story Updated: Apr 9, 2008 at 5:48 PM EDT

Parents are afraid to physically correct their little heathens, lest they bruise little Johnny's ego along with his/her butt and cause them to be violent later in life. So, explain this. I'm confused, being an old conservative from the dark ages where we got our hidings when we needed 'em.

It is a sad world....isn't it!!

As a parent, we can take away the t.v., games, computers.......I still say if a kid needs their bottom smacked...they should get it smacked!  As a child, if my butt needed it, it had the red handprint. The spanking hurt my pride more than my butt!  Most of the time, my brother did something and wouldn't admit to it, so we both got to hold the news paper against the wall with our noses (my kids thought that was funny, so they tried it for fun  LOL). To this day I hate Dial soap....never fib, say bad words, or be mouthy!  By the way, that is considered child abuse now....funny it didn't hurt me, but it sure made me think about what I said!!

What is worse is that the parents get blamed for everything their sweet kids do!  I don't mind being blamed IF I can be allowed to have control back!!!!  Of course, my 20 year old was my wild child..a little late to smack his butt!

These kids doing this craziness need to be tried as adults!  They are old enough to make the right decisions of right or wrong - they know what they are doing is awful and they obviously do not care! Not knowing the kids, I have to feel for their parents.  I would hope they don't condone this type of behavior.