Sounds like they pushed him too far. Everyone has a limit, and it's unfortunate that students are enabled to push as much as they like. They have all the latitude and the teacher hasn't a leg to stand on when it comes to setting some basic standards of behavior. Unless he did physical harm to one of the students, I can't say I blame him.
I wouldn't be a teacher in a public school for all the proverbial tea in China.
I agree. Students seem to forget that their teachers are human too. I remember in high school, my English class made the teacher burst into tears. I felt bad for her, but when she had everyone write about how they were improve I wrote a standard, "I will be good" type of paper. I wasn;t one of the kids acting up, so really did not know what to write. Also in fourth grade I remember my favrorite teacher absolutely flipped out when the class was acting up to much. He was so mad he threw something thataccidently hit one kid in thenhead. He sent everyone out of the room in order to calm down. He then apologized a whole lot to the kid who got hit. He was really broken up about doimg that.