PPS Superintendent Promises Changes Following Assaults On Teachers

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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Dr. Anthony Hamlet visited Pittsburgh King PreK-8 Thursday morning. The visit came after two teachers were involved in run-ins with students in the past ten days.

Dr. Hamlet promises change is coming at Pittsburgh King.

"We are going to expedite some things here based on some things here, based on some things that occurred. We have already moved to hire individuals that's going to seek out programming for social and emotional learning," Dr. Hamlet said.

He confirmed a second incident at the school happened this week, but was cautious with what he could say.

"It involves a student and a teacher and it's an ongoing investigation right now to make sure that when those things happen we've got to look at both sides of that, do an investigation. Until then, we can't talk about it," he said.

The first incident happened last week and escalated to the point where two people are in jail for assaulting the teacher. Hamlet says there are many reasons why students may act out in school.

"Some social and emotional issues that they might have, some trauma that they've gone through, so we have an approach right now…not just looking at academics, understanding some outside environmental factors may affect students behavior," Hamlet said.

Hamlet say he has talked to the teacher involved in last week's incident and will do everything he can to support all the district personnel.

"We want to make support our teachers through the process and we stand strong. We stand firm -- that we really want the public to understand that we don't condone this. It's unfortunate and we'll support our teachers as much as possible," he said.