When I read the thread title I thought the teacher was an actual special ed teacher....as in a teacher for disabled/handicapped students. If that were the case, I'd think this was extremely fucked up. However, it appears that he's actually more of an "alternative school" teacher, i.e. a teacher for kids that fuck off in school and cause trouble.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not condoning the way that he handled the situation. There are certainly a lot better ways that he could have handled it, but it sounds like that kid is a jerk off that doesn't really care about his education and constantly causes trouble in the classroom. Sometimes you have to take a harder line with kids like that. I'm not saying what he did was right, but I can understand how a problem child could eventually get under your skin.
I don't think the teacher should be fired. However, some counselling/schooling/etc to teach him how to better handle children like that is certainly warranted.
I don't even really think this is news worthy. I've seen much worse at some of the rougher schools in the Chicagoland area, but you don't ever hear about those.
hate away...