Ohio teacher undergoes brain surgery after 15-year-old student attacks her

A 60-year-old Ohio teacher was so critically injured in a brutal attack at the hands of a student that she needed to undergo brain surgery.

The 15-year-old student punched the teacher in her head in a classroom, causing "a severe brain injury requiring extensive medical treatment," according to an incident report obtained by The Cincinnati Enquirer, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK.

The student in Colerain Township, just outside of Cincinnati, has been charged in the attack and is being held in a juvenile jail. The teen, also accused of attacking a fellow student, is believed to have been under the influence of an unknown substance that caused him to hallucinate.

Here is what we know so far.

Ohio teacher sustains brain injury

Colerain Township police responded to the assault on the Colerain High School campus just after 2 p.m. Thursday.

Police found the student in the lobby of the school's career center, suffering from what's believed to be a self-inflicted wound to his head. Officers determined that the teen appeared to be under the influence of an unknown substance and was reportedly hallucinating.

The student had begun acting  “distraught” before the attack and had injured another 15-year-old student by grabbing him and pinching his neck, officials said.

Paramedics took the teacher to a local hospital, where she has since had to undergo major surgery to remove her skull cap to accommodate brain swelling and prevent further damage, according to the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office.

The student who was pinched did not require medical care. There was no immediate update on the teacher's condition on Monday.

According to a statement released Friday by the Northwest Local Schools and Colerain Township, the student attacker is being charged with felonious assault and was treated at a hospital before being taken to the Hamilton County Juvenile Detention Center.

"Northwest Local Schools has confirmed that the incident was isolated and that there is no current threat to the school community regarding the matter," said the statement. "The district remains resolute in their commitment to providing a safe and nurturing environment for all students and staff."

Other teacher attacks in the U.S.

Teachers have faced more risks to their safety on the job than guns in recent years, though 2023 alone saw 37 school shootings resulting in injuries or deaths, according to an Education Week analysis. 

Last January, a 6-year-old student in Virginia shot his first-grade teacher. Abby Zwerner, 26, ended up suing Newport Public Schools for $40 million after the shooting, claiming that administrators had ignored multiple signs that the boy was not only violent and showing behavioral issues but also reports of him having a gun on him at school that day.

In February last year, a Florida teacher's aide endured a violent attack at the hands of a student after confiscating a 17-year-old boy's video game console. As previously reported by USA TODAY, the teen lunged at the aide after she confiscated his Nintendo Switch, knocking her unconscious and then kicking and punching her about the head and back approximately 15 times before other faculty members stopped him.

The teen was charged with aggravated battery on a school board employee, a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

In 2021, schools issued warnings about a TikTok trend in which young students were encouraged to "slap your teacher." While actual searches for the trend on the platform didn't produce significant results, TikTok posted a message about the challenge, calling it an "insult to teachers everywhere" and reassuring any related content would be removed.

Some reports of assaults related to the apparent challenge did surface, such as the incident in which an 18-year-old Louisiana student was arrested for attacking a 64-year-old disabled teacher. A middle school student in Massachusetts likewise faced consequences for allegedly hitting a teacher as part of the "trend."