TAMPA, Fla. – Adams Middle School teacher Luis Rizo doesn’t tolerate students who are “disrespectful” in his sixth grade social studies class.

The 43-year-old made that clear this week when he allegedly assaulted a 12-year-old in front of his classmates for giving him a hard time.

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Tampa Police contend Rizo approached the boy’s desk and spit in his face. When the student stood up, the two yelled at each other before Rizo grabbed him by the throat and slammed the boy’s head down on a desk, where the teacher held him down and refused to set up, the Tampa Bay Times reports.

The police report alleges Rizo grabbed the student by the shirt and twisted his fingers behind his back, then “tossed” him in the hallway.

James Crouch, who lives across the street from the school, witnessed the aftermath.

“As soon as I heard hi wail, I walked out from my porch and I saw a boy running from north to south …. And just the whole time screaming and then I saw a teacher behind him saying ‘I just want to talk. Stop, I just want to talk,’” Crouch told WFLA.

The boy was left with “a minor bruise behind his ear” and swollen fingers, according to the police report.

Rizo told a WFLA reporter who went to his home that he had “no comment at this time.”

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He also declined to talk when the Tampa Bay Times called for comment.

School district spokeswoman Tanya Arja said officials “are taking this matter very seriously and are waiting for more information from the investigation.” She said Rizo was removed from the classroom to work in a non-student area.

Rizo has a clean teaching record since coming to the district in August 2015. He first taught at Eisenhower Middle School before transferring to Adams Middle School last year, Arja told the Times.

Police arrested the teacher at his home Tuesday night, about six hours after the incident, and charged him with child abuse. He was released from Hillsborough County Jail after posting a $2,000 bail.

“He shouldn’t be a teacher, I wouldn’t imagine,” Janet Britten, grandmother of an eighth-grader at the school, told WFTS.

“It’s not right,” she said. “He should have walked out of class and went to the principal.”

Folks online agreed, though some wondered what the student did to provoke the outrageous outburst.

“The kid probably got ice cream on the way home, then to see a lawyer,” sunnyfla posted in the WFLA comments.

“A higher authority at the school should have been notified before this situation escalated,” Cathy Rooks wrote. “Obviously, the student was also out of control to provoke such a violent response … no excuses for it, though!”

“The kid probably baited the teacher into a minor altercation. Kid and friends are laughing their azzes off right now,” JSFLA posted. “Next teacher of that class better be aware of the kids’ behavior.”