Caught on Camera: Teacher Boxes Student

Usually, it's students who get in trouble for fighting at school.

But a teacher at Castleberry High School in River Oaks was suspended and later resigned over a video of him boxing a student.

The 23-second video posted on YouTube shows the teacher and a student boxing in a school hallway. At first, it looks like horseplay, but a few shots appear to connect.

Two other students said they also boxed the same teacher last week, but those videos were not posted on YouTube.

Brad Graves, a ninth-grade English teacher at Castleberry High School in River Oaks, was suspended on Friday and resigned on Monday, said superintendent Gary Jones.

Jones called Graves a "good guy" and a "good teacher" who made a poor decision to "horse around" with students.

"I need my teachers making good decisions, and this wasn't a good decision," he said. "It's inappropriate."

Freshman Samuel Rubio, 15, said Graves approached him in class April 14 while other students were working on a project.

"He came up to me real close and said, 'Let's go box in the restroom,'" Rubio said. "So I was like, 'All right.'"

Rubio said at first he thought the teacher was joking.

"And we went into the restroom, and he started throwing body shots at me," he said. "I thought he was kind of crazy."

But Rubio said it shouldn't cost Graves his job.

"It wasn't a big deal; we were just messing around." he said. "Maybe suspend him for awhile, that's it."

But other students and parents said the incidents were serious.

"It's kind of scary a teacher would just flip out like that and fight other kids," said 18-year-old senior Christopher White.

The mother of another student said she was outraged by the video.

"He should never be able to be a teacher again, never," Shari Leck said.

Jones said Graves was "very apologetic" when confronted about the fights and realized he had made a mistake.

When reached on the phone, Graves declined to comment and hung up.