Sharpstown principal gets support from community

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Parents, students and even a prominent Houston attorney are coming forward to defend a high school principal accused of hitting four of his students.

HISD officials say Sharpstown High School Principal Robert Gasparaello was removed from campus on Monday pending the outcome of an investigation. One of the students says the principal struck him in the head eight times over bad grades.

Another student says Gasparaello struck him in the neck because his pants were dropping. Two students say they had been accused of being in a gang and were kicked out of school last week.

"My frustration is that now all you gotta do about a teacher is make some kind of cockamamie accusation against them," said attorney Rusty Hardin, " If you're a discontented student, and you're suspended."

Hardin represented the principal in a previous case in 2013. The principal was accused of not reporting alleged child abuse to authorities but those charges were later dropped in a plea deal.