By: PAUL LEVY

Members wants answers in the wake of a video in which a teacher is seen tussling with a student after breaking up a classroom fight.

Somali community members are calling for an independent investigation of an incident in which they say a Champlin Park High School teacher choked a Somali student while restraining him after breaking up a classroom fight early this month.

Members of the community met Tuesday with district and school officials at the school. At a news conference afterward, they said the Somali student was arrested after the encounter and suspended.

Dennis Carlson, superintendent of the Anoka-Hennepin School District, said he will ask the school board at its meeting Tuesday night whether it will approve an outside investigation.

A video of the incident has circulated on YouTube.

Joe Hall, an industrial arts teacher at the school, said Friday that a fight erupted in his classroom between two students about three weeks before. He said he was “breaking up the fight” to ensure “student safety and security.”

Two videos, apparently taken from student cellphones, have circulated. One, which lasts 36 seconds, shows the physical confrontation between two students, with Hall breaking it up. The second, 55-second video shows Hall grabbing the Somali student by the head. As another student yells, “That’s enough, Mr. Hall,” the video shows Hall using a headlock to freeze the student and then placing him in another wrestling-like hold.

“Are you done?” someone, apparently Hall, is heard yelling to the student.”Sit right there.”

The school’s investigating team has interviewed several students who witnessed the incident, said Mary Olson, spokeswoman for the Anoka-Hennepin School District.

The student appears to cock his right fist during a brief moment when Hall lets up.

Concerned Somali community members reported the incident to the Council of American and Islamic Relations in Minneapolis. CAIR-MN has called for an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education.