I present to you a moral dilemma

[Haliwali]

A student I have classes with is mentally challenged. He isn't exactly friendly to me, throwing small things and swearing at me, and is encouraged by the classmates. I normally ignore this. Today, he took a rubber band and flung a rock at me, which missed. He then walked over to where I was standing and, while my back was turned, flicked me in the back of the neck. I turned around while swatting my hand to my neck, and thus hit him in his face. He stooped to grab a wooden board which I can only assume he intended to strike me with, and I stamped down on it. He stood back up and acted like he was going to hit me, and I shoved him back by reflex.

Apparently, this makes me the worst mofo on the planet. Stoners, drug dealers, and racists (all in my class) saw me as the scum of the Earth.

There's going to be a linch mob when I get to work, from what I've gathered. I have training to defend myself, and I think I can rely on some of coworkers to help me out, but I present to you this question:

Was I wrong?

I'll post more when I get back from work tonight.

 

[Resistance205]

I dont think so, from what you have said you seemd to be in the right.
You should have the right to defend yourself, no matter who the attacker is. You done the right thing I think.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

No, he's being a bit of a twat, you can get him back. Being mentally challenged isn't an excuse to fling rocks at people and be mean to them.

If you have to run then run. That's my advice for work.

 

[NinjaSkills]

Nooooo, it was self defense.

 

[Bretty]

Sounds good to me...

And if anything happened out of school I would get the cops involved lol. Nothing says I hate you more than a criminal record!

 

[slyywiskers]

well they way i see it hiting him in the face was an acciedent but over all his own fault. and shoveing him when he made to hit i geusse is all right becouse mentally challeneged people are uassally very strong...... he could have (if not perpouslly) done you serious harm.

 

[throwitinthetrash]

Unless he's got a really strange disease, he is still in full control of his actions and should be able to stop when given negative signals.
You're classmates are a-holes.

 

[Agayek]

I dont think so, from what you have said you seemd to be in the right.
You should have the right to defend yourself, no matter who the attacker is. You done the right thing I think.

Basically what this guy said.

I don't care how fucked in the head that guy is, as soon as he came at you with violence, you were well in the right for what you did. Hell, I'd side with you if you had hauled off and punched him in the face.

 

[ExaltedK9]

Tricky situation...no I don't think you were wrong in defending yourself. He was the one looking for a fight.

 

[Mr. Socky]

There is no easy answer, but yes. You accidentally hit him, and he was going to fight back, so you stopped the fight before someone got hurt, without hurting the other guy. Good for you.

 

[The Infamous Scamola]

You always have to be careful when dealing with the mentally challenged, since you can't really defend yourself from them.

I have a question for you though, if this student is mentally handicapped, then why isn't he in a special needs class?

 

[bad rider]

... I doubt anyone will do anything.

 

[nathan-dts]

What everyone else said.

 

[Xvito]

If someone is mentally challenged to the degree of flinging rocks at people and hitting them with wooden planks, then maybe someone needs to take care of them...

 

[Sampler]

Accidents happen - shoulda said sorry though when you cracked him the face, could've defused things.

Bit late now obviously.

Oh, and xmetatr0nx - never had a part time job whilst at school?

 

[internutt]

Good luck. Sounds like a bitter bastard. The mentally challenged kids in my school did not know what the boundaries were at all.

His retardation is no excuse for being a violent prick.

 

[Oopsie]

Not at all. Being mentally challenged doesn't give you the right to start hitting someone. No matter how "sad" everybody thinks he is. I mean, if a woman would hit you really hard, you would strike back as well, right?
Reminds me of the time a black person called me a white monkey, so I replied he must then be a black monkey.
My class was outraged. But a bit of reason and a week later everything was back to normal.

 

[jman737]

I think your classmates were way out of line, but that doesn't mean you weren't a little bit wrong. I do think that there were alternatives, but under the circumstances, that was one of the best options. It could have come out better, though.