Today, I was threatened by a student in class. His exact words were (edited to remove profanity), "Man, if I get an F in this class, I'm going to beat him up." The student addressed the comment publicly to the whole class.

I threw the student out of the class, and during my prep, went down to the police office in the building in order to file charges against the student for aggravated assault. There, the officer informed me that because the student used "him" instead of "you" that it was not legally considered a threat, and therefore was not aggravated assault.

Now, I'm sorry. But I was assaulted in my classroom yesterday during a separate incident by another student. Two students from the school were held up at gunpoint earlier this week right outside the school. I have had students tell me to "watch my back" because they were worried for my safety. And I cannot press charges against a student that threatens to do me bodily harm because of a simple pronoun?

So my question is this: in the future, if a student announces to the class that they plan to, quote "beat him up", is it a lie to say that they plan to "beat you up" on the police report?

To falsify the report would be indeed be an evil. However, I feel that you could describe the situation accurately enough for it to be true and in such a way that it would have the necessary force to have the intended consequences.

Otherwise, seriously consider getting another job. I will pray for you. I am sure that you are being sanctified by teaching those students.