Washington Teacher Arrested After Threatening To Shoot Students, Police Say
Source: NBC News
"If the student does it, theyre going to jail. Now we have a teacher doing it. They're also going to jail," a Pierce County sheriffs detective said. A teacher in Washington state was arrested Wednesday after threatening to shoot students, the Pierce County Sheriffs Department said.
The teacher made the threat while on the phone with a caseworker, according to sheriff's officials.The woman has not been named by officials, who said she is a 58-year-old teacher at Emerald Ridge High School in South Hill.
She made the statement Tuesday while talking to a caseworker, who called the sheriffs office around 6 p.m. to report the threat, the sheriffs office said in a statement. The sheriffs school resource deputy assigned to the high school, which is in Puyallup, contacted the teacher at her home, and "the teacher repeated the threat to the deputy and was placed under arrest," the sheriffs office said.
The teacher was booked on a charge of threats to injure. Pierce County sheriffs Detective Ed Troyer said that the teacher "didn't back off from those comments" as officials were conducting the investigation, according to NBC affiliate KING of Seattle...
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/washington-teacher-arrested-after-threatening-shoot-students-police-say-n1082006
No weapons were recovered, and Troyer said it was unknown what prompted the threat. "Everybody knows you dont talk about guns or make any threats in school," he said, "So shes going to be booked in jail as we look into this a little bit further."
In a statement the Puyallup School District said "making threats against the safety of students and staff is a felony crime and taken very seriously by Puyallup School District," according to KING.
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(Newsweek). Emerald Ridge High School student Raul Garibaldo told KCPQ he was shocked by the news. "She's normally a really nice teacher," he said. "It's really traumatizing because it's a teacher I grew up with, during my lunch breaks I would go there and just talk. She was really helpful."
https://www.newsweek.com/washington-puyallup-emerald-ridge-high-school-math-teacher-arrested-shooting-threat-1471726
dware
(12,094 posts)No telling what would have happened if this teacher was armed, as the NRA would have it.
appalachiablue
(41,056 posts)nice, very helpful,' as I just posted. Ya never know..
Coleman
(847 posts)14 years of teaching these soul suckers makes it clear that even the best of teachers could finaly snap. I got out when the getting was good.
appalachiablue
(41,056 posts)can be, she needs help and maybe more.
beveeheart
(1,364 posts)Now, many years later, I volunteer-teach an English conversation class to adults who want to speak English better.
YOHABLO
(7,358 posts)reached her tipping point. I hope she gets some help.
appalachiablue
(41,056 posts)IronLionZion
(45,269 posts)Then arm the students to defend against bad teachers!
Then arm veterans with PTSD as security officers to shoot both the students and teachers!
appalachiablue
(41,056 posts)cyclonefence
(4,483 posts)I am curious about the exact context in which the threat was made. I have often said that I want a machine gun mounted on the hood of my car, but clearly it's said in jest. It's just hard for me to understand how and why a teacher would say such a thing to a case worker, of all people. I'd like to see a transcript of the conversation. It's not that I don't think the words were spoken.
If there was a long delay (hours, say) between the incident and the reporting of it, it might mean that the caseworker understood that it was not a serious threat at the time it was spoken, but after thinking about it, realized she had an obligation to report such threats, seriously meant or not.
I would think that if the caseworker believed it was a serious threat, there would have been an immediate call to the cops. The fact that the call was made at 6 p.m. sounds like maybe the caseworker talked it over with someone and was reminded of her obligation to report *all* threats.
Midnight Writer
(21,552 posts)If it was a "joke", and she knew it had attracted attention from law enforcement, why would she repeat it?
cyclonefence
(4,483 posts)--unless she's insane--why would she repeat it to the police?
Not saying it wasn't a serious threat, just saying I want to hear its context, and how long it took the caseworker to report it.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)What prompted the call, who the caseworker was representing...the teacher? a student?
In any case, the caseworker is mandated to report the threat, and she/he did so.
cyclonefence
(4,483 posts)As a mandated reporter, the caseworker was required to report, whether the threat was serious or a joke. That's why I wanted to know the timeline--if the cw felt it was serious, I am sure it would have been reported immediately. If the cw understood it was said jokingly--as in "I could have killed that kid"--it might have been a while before the threat or "threat" was reported. The cw might have had doubts about reporting something obviously said in jest; after thinking about it, concluded even a joking threat was a mandated report.
It makes no sense to me that a teacher, who is also a mandated reporter, would have said such a thing to a person known to her to be a mandated reporter, unless it was said as a joke. A stupid joke, but a joke nonetheless.
Firestorm49
(4,004 posts)You'd think that after Scalise was shot at the ball game, they'd change their view, since it was one of their own, but they still
have more adoration for the NRA than the lives of innocent people or themselves. Wow, what a lobby huh? The NRA has both Republicans and Democrats by the nuts and knows how to hold them tight. Insanity.
MustLoveBeagles
(11,563 posts)I so tired of this.