It was Halloween, and school social worker Tricia Van Horssen was dressed as Anger, the cartoon character from “Inside Out,” when she was assaulted by one of her students.
The costume, she said, was ironic because she loves her job at a high school in Fort Collins in northern Colorado. She said her students joke that she’s always happy, even if working in a classroom for students with significant emotional and behavioral needs isn’t always easy.
That morning, one of her students came into the classroom “escalated,” she said. He was picking on another student, trying to snatch the bunny ears that the kid was wearing for Halloween. After several attempts to diffuse the tension, the student with the bunny ears slapped the student trying to grab them. That student responded by punching and choking his peer, Van Horssen said…