A Georgia middle school teacher was arrested last week and accused of threatening to behead a student who told him the Israeli flag in his classroom was offensive, authorities said.
Benjamin Reese, 51, a seventh-grade teacher at Warner Robins Middle School, was arrested Dec. 8 on charges of terroristic threats and cruelty to children in the third degree, according to the Houston County Sheriff’s Office.
An incident report from the sheriff’s office report lists 18 juvenile witnesses and multiple teachers and adults who overheard Reese’s alleged comments on Dec. 7.
One witness told police they heard Reese tell a student that he was going to “cut her head off,” the incident report said.
A teacher said they heard Reese yelling about a flag and calling a student antisemitic, the incident report said. The educator also told officials Reese shouted that he was going to slit the student’s throat, drag her outside and cut her head off, according to the report.
Reese could not be immediately reached for comment Friday afternoon. He posted $7,500 bond Sunday and was released from the Houston County Detention Center, according to a representative of the facility.
He requested a public defender, but no attorney had filed to represent him as of Friday, according to the district attorney’s office in Houston County.
The Houston County School District said that Reese has not returned to the middle school since the incident last week. In a statement, it said district teachers are required to follow a code of ethics, and if there is an accusation the code was broken, the district investigates and responds appropriately.
“Safety and the well-being of our students and staff is our number one priority,” the statement said.
The student who was the focus of Reese’s comments, told an officer with the sheriff’s office assigned to the school, that she and two friends were walking past Reese’s classroom when she noticed the Israeli flag. The three students went into the…
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