Gabriela Penalba, Teacher Set on Fire by High School Student With His Lighter [VIDEO]
A Tennessee high school teacher was saved from spending Thanksgiving in the hospital when some quick-thinking students helped her after a classmate set her on fire.
Gabriela Penalba, 23, turned her back to her class on Monday, Nov. 25 at West High School in Knoxville, Tenn. when a 15-year-old-male student set her on fire by holding his lighter up to her, according to The Huffington Post.
The student set Penalba's hair and shirt ablaze and allegedly exploited the commotion from other students trying to help Penalba, by throwing the lighter out the classroom window and fleeing before being captured later by police.
The cleverness of her other students helped Penalba avoid any burns. Her attacker is facing aggravated assault and evading arrest charges.
This is not the first attack a high school teacher has faced in recent months. In October, Colleen Ritzer, a 24-year-old math teacher at Danvers High School in Danvers, Mass. was found dead in the woods behind the high school.
Ritzer had been sexually assaulted by 14-year-old student Philip Chism, who then used a box cutter to slit her throat. After attacking her in a second-floor bathroom of the school, Chism then dragged Ritzer's body outside in a recycling bin.
He is facing charges of rape, murder, and armed robbery for stealing the teacher's iPhone, credit card and underwear after committing the crimes.
A motive still has not been revealed in that crime, though authorities are working on a theory that Chism was infatuated with Ritzer and attacked her after she did not respond to his advances.
