Teacher arrested for forcibly cutting student’s hair while singing US national anthem

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A teacher in Visalia, California, was arrested on Wednesday for forcibly cutting her student’s hair and at the same time singing “Star Spangled Banner”—the US national anthem—in front of her class.

A video on the social media site Reddit showed 52-year-old science teacher Martha Giesgzinger cutting a male student’s hair while singing the national anthem.  The student attempted to get back to his seat, but the teacher said, “You’re not done,” ordering him to go back in front and continuing to snip his hair.

After the student got up, Gieszinger said, “Next, I’m not done!” while snipping her scissors in hand. She then got close to another student and tried to cut a piece of her long hair. Everyone then ran outside out of the classroom, with the teacher still singing the anthem loudly.

One of Gieszinger’s students at University Preparatory High School, Lilli Gates, told The Vista Times Delta: “When everything was going on I was terrified, and I so badly wanted to blame her. I was scared she was going to come back.”

Meanwhile, Principal Eric Thiessen said that all the students were safe during the incident.

Gates added that her teacher’s character that day was unlikely. “What she did to my classmates and I is inexcusable,” she said in the report. “I am not trying to make excuses for her, I simply ask everyone to reconsider how they view her.”

Gieszinger’s husband, who was unidentified, told ABC 30 that he was clueless as to why  she did it. “It’s not her. It’s not who she is. So I don’t know what was going on with her. I don’t have any clue as to why she did that,” he said.

The teacher is currently booked at the Tulare County Pre-Trial with a $100,000 (around P5,270,000) bond on suspicion of child endangerment.  Katrina Hallare /ra

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