Teachers working in public schools today face increasingly disrespectful and even violent students — and a frightening case in New York mirrors others around the country in which teachers have been physically assaulted by students.

The principal of a lower Manhattan high school was beaten “to a pulp” by a student Monday after he told the teen to remove his headphones, sources told the New York Post.

Although factors in this attack are unknown, “restorative justice” may be at play.

Matthew Tossman, principal of Manhattan Early College School for Advertising — which is part of Murry Bergtraum High School, right near the Brooklyn Bridge and City Hall — stopped 18-year-old student Luis Penzo in the hallway for having his headphones blasting.

That’s not so terrible. Kids need to be alert and be able to hear others around them.

Yet the 18-year-old student refused to remove his headphones after his principal requested it. When Tossman himself tried to remove the headphones from the student — the 18-year-old hauled off and punched him.

Penzo then continued to beat the principal, witnesses told police. He hit him several times in the face, causing swelling and lacerations around the principal’s eyes, the Post reported.

Tossman was taken to Lower Manhattan Hospital for treatment, and was later released.

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“The respect that kids used to have for adults is gone,” one Austin, Texas, father and grandfather of two told LifeZette emphatically after hearing about the assault. “As the culture cheapens, many kids don’t seem to value anything as old-fashioned as their elders or their teachers. I’m surprised people go into teaching anymore, with all they have to put up with in terms of bad and dangerous behavior.”

Penzo was arrested about an hour after the attack and charged with second-degree assault, a felony. This arrest follows a run-in with the law just last month after the same 18-year-old crashed his car into another vehicle and proceeded to punch the other driver, according to the Post.

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Tossman’s wife refused to comment on the assault. She referred questions to the Department of Education.

Although factors in this attack are unknown, “restorative justice” may be at play. Restorative justice — an initiative under the Obama administration, which has been adopted by New York public schools as well as many other schools around the nation — replaces harsher penalties like detention and suspension for minorities with progressive discipline such as “talking circles.”

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Restorative discipline operates under the assumption that school discipline is inherently racist because blacks and minorities are suspended at higher rates than whites.

“It’s just basically been a totally lawless few months,” one teacher told the Chicago Tribune last year of the new discipline policies.

“Things have changed so much since I was young,” an anonymous poster commented online at DailyMail.com. “Whatever happened to discipline and respect in our schools?”