San Bernardino teacher placed on leave after alleged threatening remarks on video
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. - A high school teacher in San Bernardino has been placed on leave after a video of him saying he wanted to physically attack a female student made the rounds on social media, and current and former students say this isn't the first time he's made similar comments.
Robert Bean, an English teacher at Cajon High School in San Bernardino was captured on cell phone video shouting, "She’s a rude, defiant little brat kid that I just want to slam her face up against the wall." Unbeknownst to Bean, a student was recording his every word. "I’m old-school guys, I’m 53 years old," he said.
The video posted on social media has comment after comment from current and former students describing their own horrible experiences with Bean.
"I’m shocked that it’s still happening. I’m shocked that he’s still there," says Megan Soult, one of Bean's former students. Soult said, she reported Bean to the school for abusive behavior in 2009 but said nothing was done about it. "I was bullied and harassed by him, at a time when I really needed guidance, and I’ll remember it forever," said Soult.
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Blaine Anderson, a senior at Cajon High says, "He’s done this stuff in the past, he’s yelled at students, he’s called them different slurs, the ‘R slur’ for one and the ‘F slur’ is another one."
Senior Melissa Tice said, "I understand that some teachers can get frustrated, but it doesn’t give them an excuse to act this inappropriate."
FOX 11 reached out to the San Bernardino City Unified School District and received the following response:
"SBCUSD placed Mr. Bean on administrative leave this morning. We are looking into the allegations posted on social media. We are not able to share more about this situation because we are required to protect our employee's privacy in this matter."
One student who asked to remain anonymous said that "this is something that won’t be fixed with just an administrative leave," and that if and when Bean returns to the classroom, "we plan on staging a planned absence from all periods of his class.
Other students have demanded Bean be fired, not necessarily for just this incident, but for what they call a long history of inappropriate behavior.