A Jewish center faculty instructor has been charged with making terroristic threats and cruelty to youngsters after he allegedly threatened to assault and behead a scholar who discovered his show of the Israeli flag offensive.
Witnesses, together with workers and college students on the Georgia faculty, reported they heard the threats and noticed his habits.
As a security precaution, the Houston County Faculty District has since eliminated the instructor from the campus.
Benjamin Reese, seventh-grade social research instructor at Warner Robins Center Faculty, was arrested on Friday, Dec. 8, a day after the confrontation with the coed, in response to the Houston County Sheriff’s Workplace.
The 51-year-old was charged with felony terroristic threats and acts and misdemeanor cruelty to youngsters within the third diploma for allegedly shouting at a scholar, “You motherf*****g piece of s**t! I’ll kick your a**. I ought to lower your motherf*****g head off,” in response to 13 WMAZ.
Initially, round 3:30 p.m., the coed requested the instructor why he had the flag up, and the instructor defined that he was Jewish and had household in Israel.
The younger lady remarked she believed the flag was offensive “as a result of Israelis killing Palestinians” through the Israel-Hamas warfare. Reese thought-about this remark anti-Semitic, triggering his outburst.
The coed’s assertion is predicated on latest tallies of Palestinian deaths within the Gaza Strip by the Israeli navy.
As reported by The Wall Avenue Journal, authorities in Gaza, one of many two Palestinian territories Israel captured within the 1967 Six-Day Conflict, state that over 18,600 people have misplaced their lives within the battle that started inside days of the Palestinian militant group Hamas’ Oct. 7 shock assault on Israel that killed at the very least 1,200 folks. Nearly all of the Palestinian casualties incurred in Israel’s invasion of Gaza are recognized as ladies and kids, and the figures don’t differentiate between civilians and combatants.
The instructor instructed the lady, “You don’t make an anti-Semitic remark like that to a Jew,” earlier than spiraling into the threats.
A number of witnesses, together with lecturers, workers members, and college students who had been in school for tutoring or after-school detention, reported to a deputy on the faculty that they heard threatening the lady and shouting in regards to the incident when she was gone.
“I’ll drag her a** into the parking zone, slit her f*****g throat and kill her,” one witness heard him repeat.
The deputy reviewed safety footage from the hallway the place it occurred and, whereas it had no audio, was in a position to see that Reese was uncontrolled with anger. The officer took what he found to the principal, Brett Wallace, who then confronted the instructor.
The instructor didn’t deny the change however grew to become defensive, significantly when he was speaking to the deputy.
Reese reportedly requested how the deputy was interviewing him in regards to the incident, whether or not as a college useful resource officer (SRO) or as a common officer.
The deputy responded affirmatively to each roles, and Reese, asserting his civil rights, selected to not present any extra info, pleading the fifth.
Warner Robins Center Faculty is a predominantly minority faculty, with Black college students making up 58 p.c of the inhabitants.
With the testimony from others and different proof, Reese was arrested after which later launched on bond on Sunday, Dec. 10. The choose set a bond of $2,500 for the menace depend and $5,000 for the cruelty to youngsters depend.
Houston County Colleges issued this assertion saying that each one lecturers are required to abide by a specific Code of Ethics, saying, “If there’s a violation or accusation of a violation, we examine and reply appropriately.”
“Whereas we aren’t in a position to focus on particular personnel issues, we will share that Mr. Reese has not been on the campus of Warner Robins Center Faculty since Dec. 7, 2023,” the district stated, including, “Security and the well-being of our college students and workers is our primary precedence.”
