We've heard of bad teachers before, but this one truly crosses a line. A California high school science teacher is facing charges after a disturbing viral video showed her forcibly cutting a student's hair while singing "The Star Spangled Banner."
In the disturbing footage, a woman identified by police as 52-year-old Margaret Gienszinger starts cutting chunks of hair off of her student's head.
As she makes the cuts, she scream-sings the national anthem and tosses the removed hair all around the classroom. The video originally surfaced on Reddit and then was picked up by several media outlets.
According to KFSN, Gienszinger entered the classroom that day and told students it was "haircutting day."
They thought she was joking, but then she reportedly called a student up to the front of the class and performed the actions caught on the video footage. An anonymous student told KFSN that, after the incident, the teacher allegedly started lunging at other kids with the scissors and he ran to the front office for help.
"We think she's going to try to be funny and be like, 'Oh, did you really think I was going to cut his hair?' But she did cut a hair off, and she started singing the 'Star Spangled Banner' and she was singing it really loudly as she ceremoniously tossed a chunk of hair behind her," the student said. "I hope I never have to see her at the school again because I know for a fact I can never see her as a respectable authority figure in my life."
Gienszinger was arrested by the College of the Sequoias District Police Department on suspicion of felony child endangerment.
She was later charged with one count of false imprisonment, two counts of cruelty to a child, two counts of battery, and one count of assault. She has been released on bail while she awaits a court date.
Tulare County Superintendent of Schools Jim Vidak told KFSN that Gienszinger will not be returning to the classroom.
But Gienszinger's husband says he doesn't understand what happened. "It's not her. It's not who she is. So I don't know what was going on with her. I don't have any clue as to why she did that," he told KFSN.
Students also reported that the teacher had allegedly suffered another breakdown in the week prior to the incident, though the details of that have not been shared with the public.
In the discussion online, many were worried for the teacher's mental health.
Students involved in the incident have been offered counseling services at school. Hopefully this teacher is able to get whatever help she might need as well.
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
