A student suffered minor injuries that did not require medical attention.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – A Rochester high school gym teacher is facing felony charges after cutting a student with a steak knife in what officials say started as a playful tussle over a Krispy Kreme doughnut.

Marc Bergeron, 59, resigned Monday after learning the 15-year-old boy had reported the incident to authorities. Bergeron later turned himself in to police and was charged with second-degree assault and reckless conduct.

Authorities said the incident occurred Friday after school when three students met Bergeron in his office at Spaulding High School.

One of the boys apparently saw a box of doughnuts in the room and joked that he would take them.

Police Capt. Douglas Donlon said Bergeron took a butter knife from his desk and threw it at the boy, but missed. School officials said Bergeron was playfully threatening the boys with the knife.

Donlon said Bergeron then got into a physical tussle with another of the boys, during which he took a steak knife from his desk. During the tussle the boy was cut on his thumb and forearm, Donlon said. He did not require medical treatment.

Police said the boy’s mother brought him to authorities later that day.

Though the injuries were minor, “what concerns investigators and the police department is the course of conduct that would lead to that type of injury,” Donlon said Tuesday.

When reached by telephone, Bergeron refused to comment. He is free on bail.

School Superintendent Raymond Yeagley said it was an unfortunate, but serious incident.

“None of the testimony that we have received indicates there was any malice in intent,” he said Tuesday. “There was a lack of judgment. Very, very poor judgment. In my estimation it was unprofessional conduct by the teacher.”

Bergeron had worked at the school for about 15 years. Yeagley would not say whether Bergeron had been involved in similar incidents in the past.

About 150 students protested Bergeron’s arrest on Tuesday, walking out of class for about 10 minutes. They went back inside when faculty asked them to.

“I’ve known this individual for a long time,” Gerard Gilbert, chairman of the School Board Personnel Committee, told Foster’s Daily Democrat. “He’s a great guy who loves kids and would never intentionally injure anybody.”

School and police officials did not know whether the boy’s family intended to file a lawsuit.

AP-ES-03-16-04 1404EST