A former substitute teacher at a Montville, Connecticut high school was arrested Thursday for running a student "fight club."
Ryan Avery Fish, 23, is accused of encouraging students to smack each other in one-on-one fights in the classroom.
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Montville substitute teacher faces a judge in fight club incident. Pleads not guilty to reckless endangerment and risk of injury to a child. Police say he conducted and encouraged "slap boxing" between students in his math classroom in fall of 2017. #nbcct pic.twitter.com/QVk7nDwYva
— Kristen Johnson (@KristenNBCCT) April 12, 2018
Fish was fired from Montville High School on Oct. 10 after cellphone videos surfaced of students fighting each other in his math class, according to the Hartford Courant.
Montville police said they began investigating in December after a student told a social worker that he suffered a beating in the classroom. Investigators learned that fights were occurring under the supervision of a substitute teacher, and that four boys - ages 14 to 16 - were involved.
Fish told police that the fights started in September, and that he thinks there were four, according to a warrant. The warrant said that one student began vomiting during a fight, and another student was taken to the hospital in December showing symptoms of being traumatized.
“I would let them be teenagers and get their energy out,” Fish told investigators, according to the warrant. “I will admit that I did at one point egg them on.”
Police said that video "clearly showed a classroom and two students swinging full force at each other’s heads with open-handed strikes." Fish was identified standing in the background. Video also showed Fish giving directions to students engaged in the fight and moving a trash can out of the way so they could continue, according to police.
"Honestly, I am so sorry. I am so sorry because I'll be totally honest, I was trying to reach the kids," Fish told WVIT. "I just thought these kids were being rambunctious. I just thought they needed an out. If I had known what I was doing to the kids I would have done something totally different."
Fish is charged with four counts of second-degree reckless endangerment, two counts of risk of injury to a minor and one count of breach of peace. His bail was set at $75,000 and he is set to return to court in May.