A 15-year-old girl shouts in pain in a classroom in shocking video uncovered by KATU’s On Your Side Investigators. It’s one of two videos that show students being pelted with Koosh balls at a local high school under the direction of a chemistry teacher.
The teacher, Kem Patteson, is now on administrative leave from her job at Stevenson High School in Skamania County.
In a cell phone video reportedly shot in Patteson’s classroom in May, a boy cowers in a corner with a book over his face as students pelt him with Koosh balls. Students say it’s a punishment that Patteson has been doling out for at least the past two years.
In another video shot last week, a voice identified as Patteson’s can be heard directing students. This time Zoey Zapf, a 15-year-old sophomore, says she was being punished.
“I was chewing gum in class,” Zapf said. “She looked over and she told me to spin the wheel and that’s like a normal thing.”
Zapf says when she spun the so-called “wheel of misfortune” Patteson kept in class, it landed on “cush firing squad”. After that, Zapf says nearly 30 students and Patteson, a former semi-pro baseball player, lined up to take turns hitting her with a Koosh ball. Zapf says it hurt.
“I clearly said that I didn’t want to do this, and after that I found out that you can opt out with a lunch detention,” Zapf said, “and when I said I don’t want to do this, she said ‘too bad ‘or something and I got pelted.”
KATU obtained the videos with the help of the local newspaper, the Skamania County Pioneer.
“I’m gonna be honest,” Zapf said regarding Patteson, “I’m hoping she gets fired because it was beyond humiliating.”
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