Sacramento High School Principal Body Slammed By Student But Jumps Back In To Stop Fray [Video]

In the wake of a widely admonished incident that involved a police officer flipping an uncooperative student over in their desk before dragging the slammed kid over the floor and hurling them across the room as if they were part of a bouncer competition, a school principal in Sacramento, California, has been body slammed by a brawling school kid, the principal sent flying and ending up sprawled on the floor in the melee.

According to Sacramento’s FOX 40 News, Florin High School’s principal, Don Ross, was attempting to stop a brawl that was taking place in the high school lunch room before the principal got body slammed to the floor. The incident involving the principal being center-stage in the fight, and being slammed to the ground, was captured on a student’s cell phone, as so many are these days, and can be seen below.

There were reportedly several, but three primary Florin High School pupils involved in the lunch room brawl, one in a blue sweatshirt whose fight-or-flight switch was definitely flipped to fight, and who ultimately body slammed his principal when the principal tried to intervene in the fracas.

But despite getting slammed to the floor by the clearly capable and aggressive student, Principal Ross instantly got back to his feet and hurled himself back into the scrap, subduing the flailing student and dragging him back away from the fight as a “school resource officer from the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department” deftly arrived, while surrounding Florin High schoolers went wild in apparent disbelief at what they’d just witnessed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgJCYp0bn74

According to the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department, the pupil that body slammed the principal, and two other high schoolers involved in the fight, were arrested. Two of them are 15-year-olds, and the other is 13. Charges include battery and “making threats.”

FOX 40 News caught up with Principal Ross at home, the principal who had demonstrated grace under pressure, despite getting body slammed, focusing on the largely positive attributes of Florin High, and the success of its scholars and athletes, rather than the fighting incident.

Principal Ross also emphasized that the fight that led to his being slammed to the floor was not at all common at Florin High, and that the three pupils involved in the fight make up a very small percentage of Florin’s approximately 1,500 students.

A spokeswoman for the district, Xanthi Pinkerton, also noted that Principal Ross looks forward to getting back to work.

In a letter from Principal Ross sent out to Florin High parents on Monday, the principal addresses “multiple altercations” that took place on the Florin High campus, that altogether involved 10-12 subjects. While the letter from the principal, not surprisingly, makes no mention of his being slammed to the floor by one of his pupils, it does describe what happened in a straight forward way with no apologies for how the situation was handled.

“Today at approximately 11:30 a.m. during lunch, 10-12 students were involved in two separate, unrelated incidents that resulted in multiple altercations that took place in the Commons at Florin High School. School officials and law enforcement immediately responded to the incidents. The first incident involved 8-10 students and was a result of a dispute that occurred a week ago and which was relationship oriented. The second incident was an altercation between two students caused by an insult one student made to another student. All students will be disciplined.”

Principal Ross goes on to note that “three school officials sustained minor injuries” which, though minor, did require medical attention. Whether or not he was one of those injured when slammed to the floor, or at any other time, is not mentioned by the principal.

He does say, however, that none of the students involved in the brawl were hurt.

In the end, body slammed or not, Principal Ross emphasizes his primary concerns, saying, “The safety of our students and staff is a top priority at our school.”

What do you think should happen to the student that body slammed his principal?

[Images and video via YouTube]