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 A high school music teacher in Maywood was arrested Friday after a classroom fistfight between him and a student was caught on video, officials said. 
 
 Marston Riley was taken into custody on suspicion of child abuse and causing great bodily injury on a child after the brawl at Maywood Academy High School on Pine Avenue was reported to authorities around 1:30 p.m., said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Joana Warren, a public information officer with the department. 
 
 Inmate records show the suspect is 64-years-old and was arrested about 2:30 p.m. 
 
 Detectives with the agency's Special Victims Bureau are now investigating the case, Warren added. 
 
 Students who spoke with KTLA Friday night were all sympathetic to Riley, saying the classmate involved had pushed him to the brink. 
 
 The students said the confrontation began after Riley asked the young man to leave the classroom because he wasn't wearing a proper uniform. 
 
 The student allegedly refused, and cellphone video captured by another student shows him challenging the instructor, using profanity and repeatedly hurling a racial slur at Riley, who is black. 
 
 The situation escalates further after the student throws a basketball at Riley, who is then seen pulling out his cellphone to call for backup. 
 
 The student continues to insult and provoke Riley. The teacher holds his composure for a time but then punches the boy in the face, swiftly and without warning. 
 
 The ensuing brawl lasts about 30 seconds, with the pair clambering across the room as Riley repeatedly delivers blows and others in the classroom shriek. The boy is only able to deliver about one punch. 
 
 The video shows Riley continued to aggressively pursue the student even after other school officials responded to break up the fight. 
 
 The footage ends as the student is being pulled from the room by campus staff. 
 
 Several students spoke with KTLA Friday night on the condition of anonymity. 
 
 One alleged that the situation was a setup. 
 
 "Everything was planned out," he said. "There were students there who were already taking out their phones to record the incident. I don't think it's completely fair that they're just putting the blame all on (Riley), when I personally know that he's a good guy." 
 
 Another spoke up in defense of the music instructor's character. 
 
 "I had this teacher before and I had no problem with him," that student said. "He was a really nice teacher, I always respected him. He always had a really good relationship with every student." 
 
 Inmate records show Riley was arrested at about 2:30 p.m. and was being held on $50,000 bail. 
 
 Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated Marston Riley's age. The post has since been updated. ||||| A GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $64,000 for a California music teacher who was arrested after a brawl with a student. (Photo: Thinkstock) 
 
 An online fundraiser has generated more than $65,000 for a Southern California music teacher who was arrested Friday after fighting with a student. 
 
 Marston Riley, 64, who teaches at Maywood Academy High School, was arrested for child abuse after a physical altercation with a 14-year-old male student during class, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office. Riley posted bond and was released, officials said in a statement, while the boy was transported to a local hospital, treated for moderate injuries and released. 
 
 Video of the incident shows the student verbally harassing Riley, throwing a basketball at him and repeatedly calling him a racial slur. Riley then starts hitting the teen before a woman in a neon vest tries to intervene. 
 
 Students told KTLA that the confrontation began after Riley asked the teen to leave the classroom due to a dress code violation. 
 
 The GoFundMe campaign was created Saturday for Riley by Cecilia Diaz Jimenez, who said she works for the same school district as Riley and previously worked at the same high school. 
 
 “We all may have mixed feelings about what happened. But please do know that this is not the first time that Mr. Riley is attacked; physically or verbally,” the GoFundMe page read. “He is a great person and a great teacher.” 
 
 Riley thanked those who donated to the GoFundMe in a short video on the website. 
 
 “I want to thank you for supporting me,” he said. “You are a blessing.” 
 
 Los Angeles Unified School District officials said they were “extremely disturbed” by reports of the fight in a statement to the Los Angeles Times. 
 
 “We take this matter very seriously and do not condone violence or intolerance of any kind,” the statement read. “Los Angeles Unified is cooperating with law enforcement in investigating this incident.” 
 
 Riley is scheduled to be arraigned on Nov. 30 at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Courthouse, the sheriff's office said. 
 
 Follow N'dea Yancey-Bragg on Twitter: @NdeaYanceyBragg 
 
 Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/11/05/gofundme-california-teacher-arrest-student/1899464002/ ||||| LOS ANGELES >> A former South Hills High School student is suing a ceramics teacher and the Covina Valley Unified School District after the teacher allegedly “choked” and “berated” him in front of his peers during an incident last spring. 
 
 According to a complaint filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday, Scott Stragier, placed the plaintiff, Joseph Leyba Jr., in a chokehold “and started to choke Joseph to the point that he almost lost consciousness” during third-period ceramics and sculpture class on or about March 14. 
 
 “Defendant Stragier then pulled on Joseph’s right earring and almost pulled the earring out of his ear in front of all the students in the classroom,” the complaint reads. “Defendant Stragier then released Joseph from the chokehold and berated Joseph in front of the other students in the class by yelling: ‘What did I tell you about (expletive) around in my classroom, you haven’t done a (expletive) thing.’” 
 
 As a result, Leyba, 18, who has since graduated from the school, has suffered “physical injury and psychological injury,” his attorney John Lee said in an interview Wednesday afternoon. 
 
 Lee declined to expand on the nature of those injuries. The suit is seeking $5 million in damages. 
 
 Stragier could not be reached for comment. He has a valid teaching credential, according to state records. 
 
 CVUSD spokeswoman Michelle Van Der Linden declined to comment on the complaint, but she said Stragier has been a ceramics and fine arts teacher at South Hills since 1993 and has previously coached wrestling and football at the school, according to Van Der Linden. 
 
 The lawsuit comes amid a series of claims that other CVUSD employees allegedly engaged in sexual relationships with students. Over the weekend, South Hills teacher Melody Suzanne Lippert, 38, of Covina and Michelle Louise Ghirelli, 30, who was working on special assignment at the district office, were arrested on suspicion of engaging in sexual conduct with male students during two separate trips to San Clemente State Beach late last year. 
 
 Ten days prior to those arrests, West Covina police arrested South Hills High School part-time girls’ wrestling coach Anthony Vidales, 29, of Covina on suspicion of having sex with a female student on Jan. 7. 
 
 “As you can see from recent events, this school seems to have a pattern of hiring and not training and retaining unfit teachers,” said Lee, who added that the timing of the suit was unrelated to the recent arrests. 
 
 The 13-page complaint also mentions battery charges for which Stragier was found guilty in relation to the alleged incident, the complaint states. In September, Straiger plead no contest to a misdemeanor battery for that case, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. 
 
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 “The fact they let him go back to the school — it kind of shows what’s going on with that school district,” Lee said. 
 
 Van Der Linden said that Stragier was placed on leave “immediately” after the alleged incident. She added that he is teaching and the district does not intend to place him on leave because of this complaint. 
 
 “In the state of California anybody can sue anybody for anything, so just receiving a lawsuit wouldn’t necessarily place him on administrative leave,” she said. ||||| The door to the principal’s office opened suddenly. Mercy Álvarez turned and watched a Miami-Dade Schools Police officer enter to take her 7-year-old son into custody. Pain pierced her heart when her son was handcuffed. “Do not worry, my love,” she muttered to him, her voice choked with tears. 
 
 It was the second time in less than three months that school authorities punished her son by calling the police for behavioral problems. On this occasion, the boy supposedly hit the teacher after a scolding, according to the police report. 
 
 A tantrum, for sure. But a sanction that Álvarez considers disproportionate and outrageous. 
 
 “This is police abuse; a whim of the officer, because my son was calm when they came to look for him,” says the mother, an independent television and radio producer, speaking to el Nuevo Herald. “The principal, the counselor, and two other people tried to prevent that action and the officer took the child anyway.” 
 
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 The clash happened on Thursday at the Coral Way K-8 Center in Miami. The first-grader was detained under the provisions of the Florida Mental Health Act (Baker Act), based on behavioral criteria that indicate that the person could pose a danger to themselves or their peers. The boy was subsequently hospitalized, without the consent of his family, at the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. He was discharged hours later. 
 
 “He does not have a mental disorder,” says Álvarez, who took a video of the arrest and transfer to the hospital. 
 
 In a statement, Miami-Dade Schools Police Chief Ian Moffett said that this type of incident is unusual, but “was warranted to prevent his erratic and violent behavior from bringing further harm to others or himself.” 
 
 The actions were in accordance with standard operating procedures, he said. 
 
 Álvarez does not believe it. Since her video was broadcast, “more than 30 mothers in Miami have written to me in solidarity because their children have done the same thing.” 
 
 Along with her husband, Rolando Fuentes, she met with lawyers to evaluate possible legal actions against the Miami-Dade School District and the police. 
 
 Public schools spokeswoman Jackie Calzadilla reiterated in another statement that the child “began behaving erratically and hit a teacher. Due to a great concern for the student and to ensure his safety and that of those around him, he was restricted according to the Baker Act and transported to the hospital to be evaluated.” 
 
 According to the police report cited by Channel 7-WSVN, the child was removed from the cafeteria for playing with his food. Then, he was taken to the hallway where his teacher was. That’s when he “attacked the teacher by repeatedly punching her on her back.” 
 
 Although the boy was restrained, he continued to throw punches and kicks until both fell on the floor, where he continued to fight, the report said. 
 
 The teacher is planning to press charges against the child. 
 
 Álvarez says that until she sees the evidence in a surveillance video, she does not believe that her child is capable of being strong enough to knock down the teacher. The family believes that the boy is being bullied and that is why behavior problems arise. 
 
 He was suspended for 10 days last November for another tantrum at school. 
 
 According to the mother’s testimony, it was the same police officer who stopped him both times. “They have created a psychological trauma, and instead of fixing the problem, you are building a problem,” Álvarez argues. 
 
 She says that her son always dreamed of being a policeman, but these days “he told me he does not want to be because the police are bad.”
– A high school music teacher in California was arrested Friday and charged with child abuse after he got into a physical fight with a 14-year-old student who verbally provoked him in class. USA Today has cellphone video of the incident at Maywood Academy High School, where 64-year-old Marston Riley can be seen calmly absorbing the remarks of the belligerent student; students tell KTLA the teen had been asked to leave the class due to a dress code violation. For about a minute and a half, Riley quietly keeps asking the student to leave, per the Los Angeles Times, as the student berates him, calls him the n-word, and finally throws a basketball at him. Then, suddenly, Riley punches the student in the face, and they scuffle for about 30 seconds as students scream, until a woman in a vest runs in and breaks it up. KTLA spoke with some students and notes most are defending Riley, with one even suggesting it was a setup. A GoFundMe started in Riley's name by a colleague, meanwhile, had raised more than $75,000 as of Tuesday morning; Riley himself put up a short video confirming the fundraiser was legit and to thank everyone who supported him. "We all may have mixed feelings about what happened," the page host notes. "But please do know that this is not the first time that Mr. Riley is [sic] attacked; physically or verbally. He is a great person and a great teacher." As for the school district, it said in a statement: "We take this matter very seriously and do not condone violence or intolerance of any kind." The boy was treated for "moderate" injuries at the hospital, per the local sheriff. Riley is set to be arraigned on Nov. 30. (A substitute teacher reportedly ran a classroom fight club.)