Texas school board fires teacher caught on video hitting student

DALLAS, TX (FOX NEWS) - A Southeast Texas school board voted Tuesday to fire a high school teacher after a video surfaced showing her repeatedly striking a student.

KFDM reported that the Beaumont school district board accepted its superintendent's recommendation and terminated 63-year-old Mary Hastings from her position as a geometry teacher at at Ozen High School.

Hastings was arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault after the video emerged. It shows a woman sweeping papers from the top of the student's desk, slapping him five times and scolding him for being a disruption.

Hastings, who had been with the Beaumont Independent School District for the past three years, been placed on leave at the time of her arrest for the April 8 incident. She remains free on $2,500 bond.

One Ozen student told Fox4Beaumont that Hastings was a target for verbal abuse by students.

"You know we only see 12 seconds of [the video]," the student said. "That's all it is. It's not the whole thing."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.