When these stories began showing up in Charm City a couple of years ago it was possible to write them off as isolated, one-off criminal events. Recently, however, the frequency of incidents where Baltimore public school students have been physically attacking their teachers in the classroom has been increasing and it’s becoming too much to ignore. In the latest incident, one teacher was sent to the hospital after being punched in the face. (CBS Baltimore)

A teacher at Loch Raven High School had to be hospitalized after Baltimore County Police say a student punched him in the face just after 8:30 Tuesday morning.

According to sources, the teacher was in his doorway when the student “sucker punched” him.

The sources say the student kept hitting the teacher, and it took four other teachers to restrain that student.

“Usually, this does not happen at this school. He’s a nice teacher. It sucks that he has to deal with that,” said Brian Hudson, a student at Loch Raven. “He was yelling for help and his face was bloody and all. Cops were here. The ambulance was here. Students were freaked out. It’s all over social media now.“

This wasn’t “one sucker punch” as the headline might imply. The student kept repeatedly punching the teacher in the face until he was so bloody that some reports suggested a knife had been used. (No knife was found.) The teacher had to be hospitalized due to the injuries he received.

And what was the school’s response? They sent a strongly worded letter to the boy’s parents. The note mentioned unspecified “disciplinary action” but little more. They’re also still not sure if charges will be filed or not. How is there even any question about filing charges? An assault takes place inside the school and it’s so violent that a teacher is hospitalized and you’re not going to take this kid to court?

We’ve discussed this here before and it clearly seems to be part of a larger pattern. The Baltimore school board recently had the opportunity to have armed security guards in the schools and they voted unanimously to reject the proposal. They face plenty of threats coming from outside the schools in the form of gang violence, but those dangers have obviously made their way inside the schools as well. If you’re not willing to protect the teachers and the good students who are simply trying to survive and get an education, what message are you sending?

Gang-related or not, Baltimore has a criminal violence problem inside its schools as well as outside in the streets. If they’re not going to do anything about it, the citizens need to step up and put new people in charge. As things stand, some of these schools are just mass shootings waiting to happen.