Teacher threatened to rip out student's eyeballs

The father of a Clayton County biology teacher charged with threatening a student apologized to the community for his son's actions, saying the teacher was stressed out and "between a rock and a hard place."

Travis Corey Heckstall, 34, was arrested on Wednesday on disorderly conduct and terroristic threats charges for telling an unruly student he would "rip your eyeballs out" during a tirade days before the school year ended.

the classroom. "There is no question this is uncharacteristic of my son, this is a situation that got out of hand," he said. "He complained to the administration about the student but was told to keep it in the classroom, to deal with it there. He was caught between a rock and a hard place."



Police said Heckstall confronted a male student on May 21 after the boy threatened and cursed the teacher and disrupted the class. During the alleged incident, which police said was videotaped by other students with cellphones, students said Heckstall suddenly "started acting crazy," telling the class to "shut the [expletive] up."

Heckstall allegedly directed his anger toward the male student, telling him he would "rip your eyeballs out," urinate on him and "kill your family," according to the police report. Heckstall then spat on the floor and began to apologize, police said.

Heckstall taught biology at Mount Zion High School since August and resigned on May 30, about a week after the alleged incident, said school system spokesman Charles White.

Photo from here.