A CALIFORNIAN high school teacher has been arrested after he broke into his 15-year-old student's home and assaulted him.

Michael Ciccarelli, 45, allegedly broke the boy's nose after he found the teenager in a "compromising position" with a female relative and fellow student of Mr Ciccarelli's, reports The Californian.

Police say Mr Ciccarelli noticed the two teenagers were absent from wrestling practice at King City High School on November 21. The two students are dating.

He then stormed in to the boy's house while the pair were having sex, broke the bedroom door off the hinges and punched the boy "with a closed fist several times in the face, and at one point kicked him in the face while he was on the ground," according to the King City Sheriff's Office.

Mr Cicciarelli is currently on administrative leave from work and posted bail from Monterey County Jail.

His lawyer, Joseph Cisneros says his client was simply defending his family.

"He wants it to be known we consider the charges to be serious," said Mr Cisneros. "We appreciate the charges, their seriousness, but believe he will be vindicated under the class 'defence of others'."

"He used such action to protect a family member," added Mr Cisneros.

Mr Ciccarelli has been a teacher at King City High School for 20 years. Members of the local community have contacted local news outlets to show their support for the veteran history teacher.

"Mike is a great teacher," Sherry Vega wrote to The Californian. "He is the kind of teacher who really knows how to make history interesting and relevant.

"It is reasonable that he snapped. ... I can't say the rest of us wouldn't have over reacted [sic] as well."

Another local, Dominic Paz, spoke of Mr Ciccarelli's patience despite students who would "hit him, spit, cuss, yell at him."

"There's a lot of good he's done for the community by keeping kids out of trouble and giving them a healthy outlet," Mr Paz wrote. "I just hope the community doesn't judge him too harshly for this one momentary loss of control."

###