Georgia teacher arrested for threatening to kill student over Israeli flag, cops say
A Houston County middle school teacher was arrested and charged with terroristic threats last week after he allegedly threatened to cut a student’s head off over a disagreement about an Israeli flag, according to an incident report from the Houston County Sheriff’s Office.
Police arrested Benjamin Hilton Reese III, 51, on Dec. 8 for allegedly threatening a student at Warner Robins Middle School a day earlier, the report showed.
Reese, a social studies teacher, screamed at a student that he would “cut her head off” amid a string of expletives in the seventh grade technical hallway of the school.
“I will drag her ass into the parking lot, slit her (expletive) throat and kill her,” Reese said, according to the incident report.
Several nearby students and teachers told the school’s resource officer sheriff’s deputy that they overheard the exchange.
The student, an eighth grader, apparently walked past Reese’s classroom with two friends and saw an Israeli flag hanging inside. The student walked back to the classroom while her two friends waited outside and told Reese that she “found the flag offensive” due to Israelis killing Palestinians, witnesses told the officer.
Reese got angry, the incident report said, and began shouting and calling the student antisemitic. Onlookers said the student responded negatively but did not yell back at Reese, the report showed.
Reese then screamed at all three students and told them to get out of his classroom, the report said. The teacher hurled the expletives and violent threats while the student was walking down the hallway away from the classroom, onlookers told police.
When the school’s principal and the student resource officer investigating the case questioned Reese right after the incident, he told them he “spoke to no one,” the report said. More questions from the principal revealed that Reese had spoken to a student, though he claimed she was being antisemitic.
Reese stopped speaking to the officer soon after, the incident report said. The officer also reviewed a video of the hallway that showed the incident.
The sheriff’s office charged Reese with cruelty to children in addition to the terroristic threat charges, the report showed. A sheriff’s official said Reese paid a $7,500 bond and was release Sunday.
Houston County School District officials issued a comment on the situation Thursday.
“All employees of the Houston County School District are required to follow the Code of Ethics for Educators. If there is a violation, or accusation of a violation, we investigate and respond appropriately. While we are not able to discuss specific personnel matters, we can share that Mr. Reese has not been on the campus of Warner Robins Middle School since December 7, 2023. Safety and the well-being of our students and staff is our number one priority.”
This is a developing story. The Telegraph will add more details as they become available.
This story was originally published December 14, 2023 at 12:20 PM.