TEACHER HOSPITALISED AFTER ATTACK BY A PARENT

California teacher is hospitalized after he's allegedly attacked by a parent over face masks on the first day of school

(CNN)An elementary school teacher in Northern California was hospitalized after being attacked by a parent during a verbal argument over the use of face masks, the district superintendent said.

The sixth grade teacher was stitched up at the hospital for cuts and lacerations to his face sustained in a physical fight between a parent and the school's principal on the campus of Sutter Creek Elementary School, about 45 miles east of Sacramento, Torie Gibson, Superintendent of Amador County Unified School District told said.

  "I absolutely will not tolerate violence," Gibson vowed, calling the lack of respect for educators during this pandemic, "baffling."

On Wednesday, the parent arrived about 30-45 minutes after school hours to pick up his daughter who was in the school office with the principal. Both the girl and the principal were wearing face coverings, as mandated by a statewide health order, Gibson said.

According to Gibson, the parent caught a glimpse of several vaccinated educators across the hall in the teachers' lounge not wearing masks and became angry. Teachers are allowed to remove masks in the company of other vaccinated educators, according to a California directive.

After a verbal argument between the student's father and the principal over masks, in which the parent allegedly called the situation a "conspiracy" and claimed children "are being treated like animals," the parent left the campus.

A short time later he returned without his daughter and again engaged in an argument with the principal, Gibson said. When the situation escalated, a male teacher stepped in to try to settle the dad down, but a physical fight