This is unreal! If any of us threaten to kill our boss, do you think we'd be on paid leave while the school is on lock-down? This fits right in with the Goon rallies this week at the Capitol. 14 arrested. These people are dangerous and very violent sometimes. That's a good reason to get your CCW/CPL and carry.
What do you think? Does this poor teacher deserve her job back? She teaches PSYCH?!? OMG
Stockbridge High School under heightened security; teacher allegedly said she wanted to shoot principal and 'blow him up'
Updated: Thursday, March 17, 2011, 8:46 PM
Rachel Iovan | Jackson Citizen Patriot By Rachel Iovan | Jackson Citizen Patriot
Stockbridge High School remains under heightened security more than a month and a half after a teacher allegedly threatened to kill herself and the school’s principal.
Lynnette Brown, the high school’s psychology and social studies teacher, is on paid administrative leave, said school board trustee Laurie Goodlock. The doors to the high school remain locked during the day with a staff member posted at them to let students in and out.
Brown, 43, told fellow teachers she wanted to kill herself and shoot Principal Karl Heidrich or “blow him up,” according to a Stockbridge Police Department report. She made the threats after a Jan. 28 meeting with Heidrich in which he suspended Brown for two weeks for showing a movie to her students.
Brown showed her psychology class “The Butterfly Effect,” Goodlock said. Goodlock has not seen the movie but said she objected to nudity and violence in the movie. She called the movie pornography and wondered why a comprehensive criminal investigation — into the showing of the movie and the alleged threats — had not occurred. The police report indicated the matter was closed.
According to the report, John Twining, a social worker at the school, told police Brown talked about killing Heidrich. Amy Haggerty, a colleague and union representative, told police Brown said, “if she lost her job she had no reason to live,” the report stated.
Heidrich, Brown, Haggerty, Twining and Robert Richards, also a union representative, were present at a meeting Jan. 28. During that meeting, Heidrich suspended Brown and told her to put together a week of lesson plans, the police report stated. It also stated Heidrich took away Brown's building key and said he might look into revoking her tenure.
Brown teaches psychology, government, economics and U.S. history, according to the school’s website. She has taught at Stockbridge High School since 1995. She graduated from Michigan State University in 1992 and earned a master’s degree from Central Michigan University in 1998, the website stated.
After the meeting, Brown, Haggerty, Richards and Twining went into Twining’s office to discuss what happened and to calm Brown. In Twining’s office, Brown had a “meltdown,” Haggerty told police. Brown “started talking about her financial problems, her dead dog, her part-time boyfriend and her low self-esteem,” the report said.
Richards told police Brown said she would kill herself and “Heidrich would have to live with the fact that it was his fault,” the report stated.
Brown was escorted out of the school by the police chief, according to the report. After Brown had left, Haggerty and Richards went into Heidrich’s office and told him about the threats.
Heidrich indicated to police “he does not think that there is a high probability that Brown will follow through with her threats,” but he wanted information about how to obtain a restraining or personal protection order.
Heidrich filed a personal protection order the next day, Feb. 1. The initial petition was denied by Ingham County Circuit Judge Laura Baird.
Heidrich reapplied for the order Feb. 4, and after a hearing in front of another judge, Richard Ball, the protection order was granted, court documents stated. Brown’s attorney, Fil Iorio, filed a motion March 1 to terminate the personal protection order. A hearing is scheduled for April 15 to consider the motion, according to court documents.
Iorio did not want to comment on the case without first speaking to Brown. Efforts to reach Brown on Wednesday evening were unsuccessful.
Stockbridge Superintendent Bruce Brown made arrangements “to secure the exterior of the high school and have someone monitoring the outside,” three days after the alleged incident, the police report stated.
The superintendent, no relation, would not comment on Lynnette Brown and would neither confirm nor deny a report she made threats.
“It’s an ongoing investigation,” and it is district policy not to comment on such matters, he said. He declined to say the subject of the investigation. Haggerty and other school board members also declined to comment.
The superintendent only would say a staff member made a threat and as a result the district increased security measures at the high school.
The doors are locked and a paid staff member is letting people in and out of the building, he said: “We are monitoring people who come and go.”
Brown, the superintendent, declined to comment on whether there was any communication between the school and the students and parents about the increased security.
When asked when the threat was made, he said, “I am not interested in giving you that information.”
The matter is under investigation by the school board. The board might refer the incident to a state tenure commission for review, Goodlock said.
— Staff writer Danielle Salisbury contributed to this story
1 comment:
Certiainly, Brown should not be allowed to return to her teaching position. People get angry, people loose it and say stupid things but it takes a "special kind" to teach our children. There are good teachers and not so good teachers and unfortunately they don't get sorted out. I wouldn't want someone of her "caliber" to have stood at the head of a classroom as an example to the children!
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