(NewsNation) — Student fighting is surging in schools across the U.S., causing some teachers to leave the profession out of fear for their own safety.

“I just could see over the last several years that the misbehavior was getting so bad that most of my time in my classroom wasn’t in teaching anymore, I was trying to put out fires. And so I got tired of being disrespected,” former teacher Stacey Sawyer said.

Sawyer joined “NewsNation Prime” to share her story, saying she’s seen students punching each other resulting in blood and violence.

“I’ve talked to other teachers that have gotten hit by other students, spit on, cussed at, one even had a got a concussion from a student, and that student was brought back in school again,” Sawyer said. “So there are several fights at the schools that I’ve been at and I was just afraid of getting hurt, getting caught in the crossfire,” Sawyer said.

The former eighth-grade teacher worked in education for over 30 years before deciding to leave the profession due to increasing student violence.

Some experts blame the rise in student violence on the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, 84%, of public school administrators said the pandemic degraded student behavior, according to one study. Another study showed one in eight teachers experienced physical violence from their students last year.

“They’ve used restorative justice, which has kind of been shoved down all of our throats,” Sawyer said. “You know, you send a kid out, and the kid comes back with a sucker because they promised to behave now. And they got a sucker because they did. And it’s like everybody gets a trophy, but it doesn’t work that way, not in life.”