Washington, Mar 24 (IANS): A schoolteacher in a private school in the US allegedly asked several of her students to punch a five-year-old classmate in the face as punishment for hitting another student.

The student, Davarius Williams, and other children from Robindell Private School in Houston had taken a field trip to a restaurant last week, during which, Davarius punched a female classmate. The teacher supervising the trip told other students to hit him back, Davarius' mother, Barbara Mobley said.

"The teacher that was driving his particular van got him and his group together and said, 'When we get on the van, I want everybody to punch Davarius in the face because he punched the little girl in the face'," Mobley was quoted as saying by The Australian.

Mobley said at least a dozen children hit her son.

"As each child got on the bus, she said, 'Go'," Mobley said. "They punched my son and went and sat down."

The school's director, Chuck Wall, said the teacher was fired within 30 minutes of the complaint.

"It was a big mistake. She should have never done it," Wall said.

"It was a very, very good teacher that we fired. She had been with me for six or seven years now ... (she) had a moment of weakness, out of frustration, and dealing with a child she's had a problem with over the last several months," he said.