Students and parents came to the defense of a Lehighton Area School District teacher Tuesday night after a school board member shared a video of a high school incident on his YouTube page.

The video shows Lehighton music teacher and high school band director Bryan Buffington sending a special needs student, the alleged bullying victim, to the office at the tail end of the altercation in a study hall in the auditorium. After the student initially refuses to go to the office and uses profanity, Buffington raises his voice to the student.

While not seen in the video, the student reportedly had items thrown at him by bullying students before being removed. The bullying students filmed the video and originally shared it on Snapchat.

Over a dozen parents and students took to the microphone during Tuesday’s special school board meeting, which lasted four and a half hours, to show their support for Buffington, who many referred to as not just an educator, but a “father figure.”

“Mr. Buffington has always been there for us,” Lehighton student Shelby Heater said, directing many of her comments at Director David Bradley, who shared the video on YouTube. “He is someone who helps students behind the scenes. You showed a 20-second video of a kid who had a mental breakdown in front of the whole school. You used a poor autistic kid to your advantage because you wanted to show there was a problem in the school.”

Many students and parents said they took issue with how the video was portrayed when Bradley shared it. In his description, Bradley wrote “teacher appears to escalate the agitation of a special needs student being bullied in LASD as the instigating bullies film themselves.”

“There has always been bullying in that school,” said Nicole Peters, Class of 2014. “I’ve been one of them. But the one person who helped me resolve it and was there for me through it all was Mr. Buffington. The video put him at risk for people thinking he is the bully when he is not.”

Peters said she thought Buffington did the correct thing by removing the victim.

“He didn’t say the kid was going to be in trouble,” she said. “He didn’t touch the kid. He just said I think you need to go and led the kid out. To the kid, it might have seemed unfair. We don’t know what then happened in the office.”

To resident Brian Shaner, however, the video painted a different picture.

“He openly mocked the student,” Shaner said. “I understand we are all human and this should not cost him his job. We’ve heard how excellent of an educator he is, but that doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be some accountability.”

April Walker read a letter from the parent of the student removed from the auditorium.

“All I want to is to hold people accountable who trigger other students,” the parent wrote. “The victim is always blamed when things escalate, but the bullying culture is internally ignored.”

During the video, while Buffington is interacting with the student, other students in the auditorium can be heard laughing.

“That is what bothered me the most, not what the teacher did,” school board member Barbara Bowes said.

Student Mae Marks said the video focusing on Buffington took the focus away from the actual bullies. She questioned whether the punishment students receive for such actions is sending a strong enough message, referencing the suicide death of a 13-year-old middle school student in 2019 as a result of bullying.

“The kids who bullied him, to the best of my knowledge got at most an in-school suspension or a detention,” Marks said. “They got to sit in a classroom alone, do their school work and not go to class. The punishment isn’t severe enough to make them not want to continue.”

Chastised by many for posting the video, Bradley said the student removed from the auditorium and his mother asked for it to be shared.

“A lot of people had their heads down and ignored the whole thing,” Bradley said. “Problems in school happen when heads are buried in the sand and it’s wrong. That culture has to change. The student and the parent wanted to use this to bring change to the community.”

Lehighton Superintendent Jonathan Cleaver said the district did not put its head in the sand, but did note that administration can’t discuss the punishment handed out to the bullying students.

“Sometimes, with regard to the person doing the bullying, if that student has an IEP (individualized educational plan), there are restrictions with what the district can do when it comes to punishment,” Lehighton solicitor Eric Filer said.

He also advocated for the district’s anti-bullying programs within its schools, but admitted nothing is perfect.

“There is no quick solution or magic wand to make sure bullying will never take place,” Cleaver said. “It doesn’t mean we can’t sit here and have a roundtable discussion about it.”