(NewsNation) — Attacks on teachers by students are on the rise, as evidenced by a slew of horrifying videos posted online — from a Florida teacher allegedly being attacked over a Nintendo Switch to an altercation in California in which a teacher asks a student to turn down loud music.

“I saw her charging, and I could not brace myself enough to get out of (the) way,” said North Carolina teacher Renata Horton of an 18-year-old who knocked her to the ground. “There was another one coming in behind me and that’s when she grabbed my hair, and they took me down and they knocked me unconscious.”

Horton said she had asked the student to take off her hoodie to meet school dress code guidelines. 

The percentage of teachers who have been attacked by students has increased from 6% to 10% in the past decade. That’s one out of every 10 teachers, according to some research.

“It’s actually something that’s historically been happening,” said Sarah Stillwell, a researcher with the National Center for School Safety. “But what we’re hearing is just more frequency with which these teachers are actually beginning to (discuss) the kinds of violent acts that are being committed against them.”

And it may be contributing to the nationwide teacher shortage.

Mark Hayes was a teacher in Tennessee for 31 years, until he was attacked in his classroom.

“The student pushed me in my chest, knocked me off my feet. Landed on my back. I was blindsided and (that’s) just something that never happened to me,” he said. 

Almost half of all school and district leaders say they are receiving more threats of violence from students than they did in 2019, according to an EdWeek Research Center survey.

“There are so many different potential contributors to why this could be happening, and school violence in general as well,” Stillwell said. “One thing may be the pandemic. We’ve heard some indications that the pandemic might be contributing to the way that students are interacting at school.”

Horton said she now suffers from PTSD after getting a concussion and broken finger in her incident — something that led her to quit teaching. 

“I don’t sleep,” she said. 

 And for Hayes, to have to face the student who assaulted him every day, it was just too much.

“I was forced to teach somebody that physically assaulted me,” he said. “I had to decide to walk away from a 31-year career. That, I really never thought I would have to do.”