The violent movie Fight Club became a reality for 12 and 13-year-olds on a typical school-day. When they walked into their classroom, they were greeted by a substitute teacher. What they didn’t know, was that they would be forced to punch and beat one another.

The Viral Video

24-year-old Natally Garcia had only been substituting within the Mesquite Independent School District for a little over a month before she quickly got fired. In the sickening video, two young boys and girls are seen throwing jabs at one another while Garcia smirks in the background.

Prior to the video, Garcia instructed students to push the desks against the wall and create an empty space for the brawls to take space. She “outlined rules for the students to follow” and goes as far to tell a student to guard the door in case someone came in. Garcia threatened to take the students’ phones to the front office if they were seen recording because she “didn’t want this on record”.

Student Behind the Camera

Luckily, Beatriz Martinez’s daughter was brave enough to capture the whole act on her phone. The daughter was fidgeting out of fear that she would be called up next to fight in the ring. She described that students left the class bloody. No serious injuries have been reported.

??“I was devastated. I was like, I couldn’t watch the full video, this must be a prank. This is not real.“ 

Beatriz Martinez

Martinez said that Garcia subbed for her daughter’s class at least twice before the incident. There were no previous issues that could have predicted the brutal skirmish. “There’s no explanation, she just wanted those kids to fight,” Martinez added. Her daughter was pressured to fight three girls, but the class period ended and she was “saved by the bell”.

Criminal Charges

Mesquite police charged the Dallas native on four counts of endangering a child. Investigators determined that Garcia encouraged and “engaged in conduct that placed four students in danger of bodily injury”. Kimbrough Middle School stated that they personally contacted parents of all children involved and reassured Garcia will not be rehired in the school district. “Her actions are appalling and intolerable,” the school district expressed. 

Although the video exposed Garcia’s actions and led police to her arrest, Beatriz Martinez’s daughter still faces consequences of the school hierarchy. Kids have sent her death threats for reporting the “fight club”.

This has not been the first time a teacher pressured students to fight one another. In Idaho, a middle school substitute teacher recorded videos of students fighting for exactly 10 seconds on a timer. The teacher then posted the recordings on social media where police were able to discover his crimes. He was arrested and charged with four counts of injury to a child.