Teachers at a school have reacted with horror to a video of their middle-aged female colleague being repeatedly punched in the face and abused by a male student.

The teenager has been arrested after a classmate filmed the profanity-laden physical attack at Parkland High School in North Salem, North Carolina.

The teacher sits motionless in the classroom as the student lands a right-handed punch to her cheek before he steps back and demands: ‘Want me to hit you again?’

‘I don’t want it,’ she replies before he repeats his demand and punches her again, this time with his left.

District Attorney Jim O’Neill said he had no authority to prosecute the thug as an adult for his assault on the teacher who has astonished investigators with her resilience.

‘I still see it playing in my head,’ Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough said. ‘I’m amazed that she even showed up for work today.’ 

Phones are whipped out at Parkland High School in North Carolina as the student attacks his teacher in class, towering over her and landing a series of blows

The middle-aged teacher sits impassively as the student punches her in the face again, sending her glasses flying from her face

A secure custody order was issued against the boy on Tuesday for one count of communicating threats and two counts of misdemeanor assault.

DA Jim O’Neill said he could not be charged as an adult because the charges only amount to a misdemeanor so they cannot be brought to superior court.

But he warned students that they face the same consequences for attacking teachers as they would for assaulting police officers.

‘We’re here to see that you’re never assaulted when you go to work,’ he told a press conference.

‘We want to remind people if you put your hands on a teacher, it’s the same as if you put your hands on one of these officers.

‘The district attorney’s office will bring the weight of this office down on top of you, so you should have fear of consequences.’

Neither the student or the teacher have been named but more than one million people have seen footage of the attack after it was uploaded by the student’s classmate, despite the school’s attempt to stop it being shared.

It is not known if the full extent of the attack was caught by the video which opens with the student landing his first blow.

Fellow students are heard giggling in the background as the student stalks back to his seat while taunting his victim: ‘Ain’t nobody coming,’ he boasts

The school in North Salem wrote to parents about the ‘unsettling interaction’ and asked that they did not share the video footage

The well-built student repeatedly swears at and abuses the educator as he towers over the middle-aged woman sitting in the corner of her class.

The second blow sends her glasses flying from her head and leaves her brushing the hair out of her face as the attacker glowers at her.

‘I told you I’m not f***ing playing with you,’ he yells.

‘You think that affected me in any way?’ she asks resignedly as he jigs to the back of the classroom.

Another student is heard giggling as he taunts her. ‘Ain’t nobody coming,’ he boasts. ‘You just got slapped. Go back to teaching.’

Tripp Jeffers, a former colleague of the Parkland educator, described her as a ‘wonderful teacher’.

‘This is shocking to the core. No educator should be treated this way.’

But the school district recorded 46 incidents of students assaulting school staff in the last academic year.

‘I didn’t fear the students. I didn’t ever feel threatened by them in any way, and I really enjoyed my time teaching there,’ said Kisha Wall-Freeman who taught there between 2012 and 2019.

Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough paid tribute to the bravery of the teacher, remarking: ‘I’m amazed that she even showed up for work today’

District Superintendent Tricia McManus said she would recommend the student’s expulsion, but District Attorney Jim O’Neill said he could not be tried as an adult

But she said worsening behavior had been exacerbated by more lenient discipline.

‘They hear the cussing and the bad language from their parents as well,’ she told WFMY.

‘I have seen that get progressively worse, even just going through the stores or in the malls. I hear it, I see it, and it wasn’t like that not even 10 years ago it wasn’t like that.’

Sheriff Kimbrough described the attack as ‘deplorable and outrageous’.

‘We should hold those who teach and educate our children in the highest regard,’ he added.

‘All of us should be outraged when those who educate us can be assaulted. We, as a community, must bring order not only to our community but our children.’

School principal Noel Keener told parents the students will face ‘disciplinary action’ over what she described as an ‘inappropriate and unsettling interaction’.

‘We are working with district staff to address this immediately and ensure behavior like this is not tolerated in our school and district,’ she wrote in a letter.

‘When you see a concerning social media post or text, please remember to report it, not repost or reshare it.’

District Superintendent Tricia McManus said she would recommend the student’s expulsion when the attack is discussed by the school board.

‘My focus now is on making sure that our teacher is taken care of and has the support needed to navigate through the lasting effects of this incident,’ she added.

But Jenny Easter of the Forsyth County Association of Educators, described the response to the attack as a ‘travesty’.

‘The level of disrespect toward educators, to be frank, is one of the many reasons we have a major teacher exodus crisis in the state,’ she added.