Substitute Teacher Arrested For Starting A Fight Club Among Students

Substitute Teacher Arrested For Starting A “Fight Club” With Students

A 23-year-old substitute teacher at Montville High School in Connecticut allegedly started a “fight club” comprised of his students.

According to reports from NBC, the state investigation into this entire ordeal found that Ryan Fish, the teacher in question, had encouraged this fight club from the start. Fish isn’t exactly owning up to his own involvement, though. The substitute teacher has now been charged with two counts of risk of injury to a child and four counts of second-degree reckless endangerment and breach of peace, but claimed he was at a loss in terms of how to manage the students.

He said about the incident, “I didn’t necessarily let them do it. I just wasn’t aware of what to do. I didn’t know how to handle the situation.” The investigation is said to have started all the way back in December, when a social worker from the Department of Children and Families contacted police about a 15-year-old kid that was showing signs of trauma. The boy admitted to the social worker that Montville High students had robbed and beat him, which then led the police to look into the school and its employees.

According to NBC, once authorities began their investigation, the school had already fired Fish last October for starting the fight club in his math class.

The former teacher reportedly entered a plea of not guilty today, later apologizing to no end outside of the court. “I am so sorry, because I’ll be totally honest, I was trying to reach the kids,” he told cameras.

Fish then continued, “I thought these kids are just being rambunctious, I thought they just needed an out. If I had known what it was doing to the kids I would have done something completely different. I would have gotten out of that situation immediately, but I thought I was reaching those kids in some way. I really did and I thought that that would help me get to them. But, I didn’t realize what was happening at the time. I didn’t know. I didn’t have the training to see what was going on. I am just so sorry.”