Florida Teacher Sparks Backlash After Body-Slamming Student To Win Game Of Musical Chairs

It's hard not to get competitive when playing a game, even silly ones like musical chairs.

Some people, however, take winning and losing far too seriously.

Including a teacher at Westside High School in Jacksonville, Florida, who sent a student to the hospital over a game of musical chairs at a pep rally.

Local news station News4Jax covered the story:

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During a pep rally at Westside High School, 16-year-old Nyla Millikin was participating in a game of musical chairs with an unidentified member of the school's staff.

Nyla and the teacher were the last two standing, and when the music stopped, things quickly got ugly.

Nyla proved victorious, seating herself in the last remaining chair, but the Male teacher did not take his loss in stride, forcibly pushing her out of the chair until she fell to the ground.

Nyla shared her unsettling experience with News4Jax:

"He was a little too close to me from the beginning, from behind."

"So when the music stopped, you know how somebody pulls the chair and runs?"

"I did that, sat down, then he ran after me, picked me up, and then slammed me."

While the teacher may have thought this was all in good fun, the altercation resulted in Nyla being sent to the hospital, and diagnosed with bruised ribs and a concussion.

Nyla's mother, Joanne, is now seeking justice for her daughter.

Joanne shared a video of the incident on her TikTok page:

In the video's overlay, Joanne made it clear that she would not take this situation sitting down:

"Everyone please repost this."

"My daughter got slammed by [an] admin at Westside High School".

"A grown man was shamed, and then he slammed her and gave her a concussion and bruised ribs."

"This teacher is not about to get away with this one, on my dead grandparents!"

"I will not stop until he his fired!"

"He took it way too serious!"

Viewers of the video firmly agreed that this teacher needed to face serious consequences:

@jojofine95/TikTok

@jojofine95/TikTok

@jojofine95/TikTok

@jojofine95/TikTok

@jojofine95/TikTok

@jojofine95/TikTok

@jojofine95/TikTok

@jojofine95/TikTok

@jojofine95/TikTok

@jojofine95/TikTok

Thankfully, Westside High School seemed to agree with Joanne's concerns, as Joanne shared with News4Jax that she had a productive and encouraging meeting with the school's principal:

"He was a very nice, very nice principal."

"He sat down and talked to me, and he said that measures are being taken, but he did say he watched a video himself, and he said he did not expect that out of that young man."

"He said he didn’t know what he was thinking."

Even so, Joanna also expressed her intent to press charges against this teacher, firmly believing that his actions should be considered assault:

"I want justice to be done, because ain’t no teacher should be that close to a student they didn’t know.”

“Nobody should even have to come or even have to deal with their kid going to the emergency room just for a teacher tackling their student over on the ground over musical chairs."

Joanne also retained the legal services of Gary Englander of Englander Peebles, who released the following statement:

"We have been retained by both Nyla and her mother, Joanna, to conduct an investigation into what occurred at the school."

"From the video, this incident should not have occurred."

"The teacher should never have put his hands on her and taken her to the ground."

"She has been injured."

"We are going to continue to work with the family and will take appropriate actions."

Duval County Public Schools and Westside High School also released a statement saying that the teacher in the video “has been reassigned to duties without student contact while the district’s Office of Professional Standards investigates," but that they couldn't provide any further information due to the ongoing investigation.