Xaviera Steele, the now infamous teacher involved in the viral Rocky Mount student vs. teacher fight video that’s been blasted over the internet, has opened up on social media to tell her side of the story on the matter. In the Youtube video posted on April 21, Steele explained that her long-standing teaching career had been unjustly ruined because she chose to defend herself against an aggressive student.
Steele began, “So, I just wanted to say, in all my 22 years [in teaching], never have I ever experienced what I experienced this Monday,” Xaviera recalled. “I’ve never been attacked by young folks. I love young people! This is why I work with them, I have a heart for them [but] that young lady attacked me, and she went for blood. She took out an inch of my hairline…and y’all know that Black women have hair issues. Okay?”
“I don’t understand what is it with Black-on-Black crime [and] Black women hating on each other. I never did that. I always show love to my sisters, especially to the kids. The kids are our future…but I’ma tell you this [the student] was in my space; she was behind the desk. I followed protocol for whoever said I touched her first. I tried to call for an administrator or somebody at the office three times. But never in my 22 years of working with young people have I ever been attacked…”
Before the fight video, Steele had been a substitute teacher at Rocky Mount High School and the rest of the schools in the district for a year before she was let go.
As previously reported by Sis2Sis, the viral video showed a Rocky Mount, North Carolina student and Stelle disagreeing about cell phone usage in the classroom. After the student began acting aggressively, Steele was caught on the video slamming the student to the ground on April 17. Both parties are facing assault charges, and the internet has been buzzing about who was right and who was wrong in the altercation.
