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Teacher Arrested After Bizarre Video Shows Her Forcibly Cutting Student’s Hair While Belting Out National Anthem
"I hope I never have to see her at the school again, because I know for a fact I can never see her as a respectable authority figure in my life," a University Preparatory High School student said of science teacher Margaret Gieszinger.
Bizarre footage taken inside a California high school classroom appears to show a science teacher screaming the lyrics of the “Star Spangled Banner” while forcibly cutting a student’s hair and chasing other students with a pair of scissors.
The footage emerged after someone posted it to Reddit on Wednesday, stating that the incident happened to a friend of theirs. That video was verified as authentic by College of the Sequoias Chief of Police Kevin Mizner, NBC News reports. The minute-long clip shows teacher Margaret Gieszinger, 52, inducing giggles and then terror in her students by her seemingly unhinged behavior.
“You're not done,” she shrieks, holding a pair of scissors in her right hand, her left hand motioning to a chair at the front of the classroom in University Preparatory High School, located in Visalia. Some teens giggle.
A boy sits in the chair and Gieszinger begins screaming the lyrics, “What so proudly we hail,” while appearing to snip some hair from the boy's head. She then tosses the chunk of hair into the air behind her.
Then, the footage shows the teacher apparently approaching a female student. It looks as though she is holding the scissors up like a weapon as the girl squirms, backs up and runs out of the room. Other students begin running out of the classroom and screaming.
Meanwhile, Gieszinger can be heard continuing to sing the “Star Spangled Banner.”
On Thursday, she was arrested on suspicion of felony child endangerment, the Visalia Times-Delta reports. Her bond was set at $100,000.
Gieszinger teaches science, according to the school’s website.
"The staff at University Preparatory High School and the administration at the Tulare County Office of Education are deeply concerned for the students who were subjected to the disturbing behavior in Margaret Gieszinger's class yesterday morning," a statement from the school district said, adding that Gieszinger will not return to the classroom and that counselors were brought in for students in light of the bizarre incident.
On unidentified student told the Visilia Times-Delta that the behavior was out of character for the teacher.
"She is a loving and kind lady. She is usually all smiles and laughs," that student said. "This is not the Miss G. we know and love."
However, the outlet noted that she's suspended in the past, both in 2007 and 2016, for unknown reasons.
Another student told KFSN in Fresno that, "I hope I never have to see her at the school again, because I know for a fact I can never see her as a respectable authority figure in my life."
[Photo: Tulare County Sheriff's Department]
