A high school student in Florida was arrested this week after he was recorded raising his hands toward his principal’s neck.
“It shouldn’t have been arrestable,” a lawyer for 18-year-old Gianny Sosa of Miami Southridge Senior High School told a judge on Thursday, per the Miami Herald.
Police disagree, claiming the gesture was the beginning of a wrestling slam called RKO made famous by the WWE’s Randy Orton, in which the head is grabbed and pulled to the ground (see a demonstration).
Indeed, Sosa is heard yelling “RKO!” in video of the hallway altercation. Principal Humberto Miret stopped the move quickly and subdued the teen.
Police say Miret, named Miami-Dade County Public Schools’ principal of the year in 2018, was “adamant” about pressing charges, reports WPLG.
Released without bond, Sosa is charged with battery on a school official, though his lawyer says there was no intent to attack and his client was just horsing around.
“Everyone knows wrestling is fake,” Roy Ugarte told the judge, adding that the arrest report was “hands down one of the most insane” he’d read. The New York Post notes that Sosa “performs RKOs on random things” in videos on his Instagram page.
The teen also posted a video in which he accuses the principal of punching him during the incident. (Read more Florida stories.)
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