A Shrewdness of Apes

An Okie teacher banished to the Midwest. "Education is not the filling a bucket but the lighting of a fire."-- William Butler Yeats

Friday, February 01, 2008

Nice.

Check out this story:
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. - A teacher who was upset because she didn't get her preferred classroom assignment left more than a dozen scribbled threats at her elementary school and a suspicious device in a student's desk, authorities said.

Susan Romanyszyn, 45, was charged Thursday with 17 counts of making terroristic threats in connection with the incidents at Longstreth Elementary School in Warminster in October.

Authorities said the fourth-grade teacher scribbled messages on school walls and on paper that threatened bomb and gun violence. The messages were written in sloppy handwriting with numerous misspellings and some with crudely drawn cartoons, police said.

A prosecutor said the actions stemmed from Romanyszyn's assignment to teach fourth grade rather than fifth grade. "She was upset or disgruntled at not getting the classroom assignment she wanted," Bucks County District Attorney Michelle Henry said.

Police also allege Romanyszyn put a water bottle containing white power and screws into a student's desk and scattered nails around the lot where teachers parked, leading to school trips and activities being delayed or canceled.

In an interview with police, Romanyszyn denied having anything to do with the incidents and said she wasn't upset about not getting a fifth-grade teaching position, according to a court document. Her attorney rejected the allegations.

"In a case like this, you go on a person's character, and the character of this woman is out there for inspection," Sara Webster said. "Nobody says she's an angry person. She loved what she did, and she loved her students and she always got good evaluations."

Romanyszyn was arrested after authorities interviewed students, administrators and teachers and reviewed footage from school surveillance cameras, Warminster Police Chief Michael Murphy said.

Romanyszyn, who has been on administrative leave since Oct. 22, turned herself in to police and was released after posting $100,000 bail. She faces up to 10 years in jail if convicted.

Romanyszyn was previously a middle school teacher at Eugene Klinger Middle School, where in 2004 she was one of two elementary mathematics teachers selected as a state finalist for the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.


The accused teacher was once a finalist for a state-wide math teaching award. Amazing.

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6 Comments:

At 2/1/08, 10:49 AM, Blogger mathmom said...

I suppose it's possible that she really had nothing to do with it. Innocent until proven guilty and all that. Let's hope!

 
At 2/1/08, 12:23 PM, Blogger CaliforniaTeacherGuy said...

Dear God! There are some of us teachers who would gladly take ANY grade we could get!

 
At 2/1/08, 1:42 PM, Blogger Mrs. Chili said...

Doesn't it make you wonder, though, what series of events conspired to push someone over the edge?

 
At 2/1/08, 6:35 PM, Blogger Mrs. Bluebird said...

Does make you wonder. I taught with a teacher who was outstanding...until her divorce when she slowly lost it. She stopped coming to school, had "migraines", became addicted to prescription pain killers. Sad.

 
At 2/1/08, 10:17 PM, Blogger "Ms. Cornelius" said...

Oh I believe in innocent until proven guilty, and that is not the way the article was written. But STILL! Someone is NUTS around there.

 
At 2/2/08, 9:41 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

Another credit to the profession! Now, I know for a fact there are all sorts of professionals out there doing exactly this sort of nonsense, yet a teacher maybe does something nuts and it's in the national news. (I'm surprised, frankly, that more of us don't dive over the cliff some days.)

 

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