Teacher Suspended for Lassoing Student During Cowboy Lesson

A visiting school teacher in Texas has been placed on administrative leave after a lassoing incident during a classroom cowboy lesson that left one student with rope marks around his neck.

What began as a history lesson earlier this week at Schrade Middle School in Rowlett evolved into an exhibition of sorts in which an unnamed teacher asked for student volunteers to demonstrate basic lasso techniques that cowboys use on cattle drives reported KHOU.

In an outside exercise, the seventh grade students were instructed by the teacher to run away from him as he attempted to lasso them, resulting in one 13-year-old being lassoed around the neck.

The incident left the boy with bruising around his neck which worsened over time, say the boy's parents.

According to Garland Independent School District spokesman Chris Moore, the teacher was a visiting instructor who was attempting to demonstrate "how Cowboys would corral maverick steers back into the herd."

"This is not something that we feel was malicious, it was not intent," Moore said. "[It was] extremely unfortunate, and extremely poor judgment."

An investigation was launched by the Garland Independent School District for precautionary reasons. Additionally, the Rowlett Police Department was considering charging the teacher with criminal charges of injury to a child.

According to the district spokesman, the teacher felt extremely bad for what occurred and  agreed never to use a lasso again to teach a class.

On Wednesday, a video of the incident surfaced showing the teacher lobbing the rope onto the students in a relaxed manner, suggesting he was not being rough in any way and appeared to have no intent to cause injury.

The student responsible for the cell phone video, Tristan McKissick, 13, was also lassoed at one point during the period of instruction, telling local ABC affiliate KVUE that he felt the teacher was just trying to make the classroom fun, and most of the students enjoyed the lesson overall.

"He didn't pull or anything; he let go when he saw it go around his neck so it wouldn't hurt him," Tristan said. "He probably shouldn't have done it, but he didn't mean to hurt anyone."

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