Poor SA?

[chasfm11]

http://www.wtae.com/news/local/alleghen ... index.html
WTAE.Com 12:25 AM EDT Oct 09, 2012

The video shows Addlespurger walking by a group of teenagers when one of the teens abruptly hits him. Addlespurger falls and hits his head on the curb as the teens walk away.

Seeing the video, the options for the teacher appear very limited. He would have to have maintained eye contact with the group of "students" (who the video says were not likely to have come from the same school as the teacher) in order to have picked up on the movement to attack. I suspect that any resistance could have been met with more force from the gang, based on their demeanor after the attack.

These are the kinds of situations that bother me the most. In such a confined space, there are not a lot of options. The best option is not to be in a place like that to begin with - but that isn't always possible. The alley could have appeared empty when the teacher entered it, based on the distances in the video.

[Beiruty]

We need the supreme leader, the civil right promoter and defender, Al Sharpton, to explain this incident.

[mamabearCali]

Yeah, sometimes the cards are just against you.

There are things one can do to limit the risk, but in that situation the only thing I can think is to either not go into such a confined space with a group of possibly feral youth or maintain eye contact with them the whole time. He might have still been attacked but he would have had a chance to see it coming and possibly put up a defense.