Teacher pours hot tea on fighting teens

HASTINGS, Mich. (WOOD) - A Hastings High School teacher is on paid administrative leave after police say she dumped a container of hot tea on two teenage young men who were fighting in the school hallway.
 
Witnesses identified the teacher involved as Vicki Sleevi, who students say is a Spanish teacher at the school.
 
Police say Sleevi threatened the teens verbally during the fight Tuesday before pouring the hot liquid on them.
 
Dillon Anderson, 18, and Skyler Henion, 15, were the students fighting. Henion felt the brunt of most of the hot tea and had what police called "minor" burns to his face.
 
"I just felt the tea running down my neck to my back and it was burning," Henion said. "Everybody says that she was supposedly screaming down the hall saying that she was going to, but I never heard it. I was too caught up in the moment."
 
Henion's mother went to Hastings police after her son came home to alert them of the incident. Investigators say they are treating the case as two separate assaults -- the initial fight, and the pouring of the hot tea.
 
"I know she did have her hands full," Henion said. "But I don't know about dumping tea on a student. I don't know if that was probably the best way she could have took it."
 
The case will be forwarded to the prosecutor's office, but not everyone is convinced that the teacher was completely in the wrong -- including one of the teens who was engaged in the fight.
 
"I just want to see the teacher just get let off the hook, and just everybody stop picking on the teacher," Anderson said. "She wasn't exactly the biggest person and she had her arms full with bags and stuff so she just kinda did what had to be done."
 
Henion says the initial fight started after the boys exchanged hundreds of "trash-talking" text messages and decided to fight. The disagreement was primarily about a girl, Henion said.
 
The last message from Anderson to Henion said "Ill be there in 3 mins (to fight)."
 
District leaders did not comment on the details of the situation but said they were investigating the incident.
 
"We are doing everything that is necessary to insure the safety of our students," said Interim Hastings Superintendent Michelle Falcon.
 
Sleevi did not return messages from 24 Hour News 8. She has retained an attorney however who said Sleevi acted professionally and has always looked out for the safety of the students.

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Online:

Team Sleevi -- A Facebook page supporting Sleevi