An Alabama teacher named Randi Nicole Staples is under arrest after a video went viral that allegedly shows her striking her son more than 20 times with a belt or strap.
She was previously named Alabama's "Teacher of the Year." Staples, 44, has now been fired, according to The New York Post. The incident allegedly occurred in Staples' living room in Mobile, Alabama, The Post added.
“Because if you were (expletive) sorry … you wouldn’t make extra work for everybody in this house," she's accused of shouting in the video while striking the boy.
The video also went viral on X. Be forewarned that it's disturbing if you choose to watch it.
According to NBC 15, Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch confirmed that authorities believe Staples is the mother in the video, which can also be viewed on the television's website. It was recorded secretly by a family member, the television station reported.
The video, which was posted to Facebook, allegedly shows "22 strikes over 14 seconds," KOMO News reported, adding that Staples is accused of "hitting her 12-year-old child with what appears to be a belt or strap before picking him up by his hair and berating him with profanity."
The NBC 15 television station identified the teacher as "Randi Nicole Staples of Grand Bay. Some viewers may recognize her as Mrs. Nicole Staples, a second-grade teacher at Cottage Hill Christian Academy."
"People are entitled to discipline their children how they choose, but that went well beyond discipline. It was abuse," Burch told NBC 15, calling the video "repulsive."
"And it was sickening to see somebody that could, you know, repeatedly strike their child, and then grab them by the hair and yell and cuss at them, and then I think the last strike was across his arms... there was never any question or doubt that she was ultimately going to be arrested," Burch alleged to the television station.
According to Fox 10, Staples was charged with an accusation of "willful abuse of a child under 18."
“I didn’t feel like, you know, she should be working at the school or even doing that to my little brothers. You know, she done it to me my whole life, so I’m 24,” Jackson Staples, Staples' older son, alleged to Fox 10.
“Something about he wasn’t cleaning the kitchen like he was supposed to be, he left, went to the neighbor’s house, come back and then it transpired into that,” he alleged to the television station, adding that his younger brothers are now staying with a family member.