Posted on 03/29/2008 2:20:52 AM PDT by Racehorse
A middle school principal threatened to kill a group of science teachers if their students did not improve their standardized test scores, according to a complaint filed with the New Braunfels Police Department.
Anita White, who taught at New Braunfels Middle School for 18 years before being transferred this month to the district's Learning Center, said Principal John Burks made the threat in a Jan. 21 meeting with eighth-grade science teachers.
She said Burks was angry that scores on benchmark tests were not better, and the scores on the upcoming Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills tests must show improvement.
"He said if the TAKS scores were not as expected he would kill the teachers," White said. "He said 'I will kill you all and kill myself.' He finished the meeting that way and we were in shock. Obviously, we talked about it among ourselves. He just threatened our lives. After he threatened to kill us, he said, 'You don't know how ruthless I can be.'
"We walked out of the meeting just totally dumbfounded because it was not a joke," White said.
New Braunfels Police spokesman Mike Penshorn said the incident was filed as a verbal assault, but is being investigated as a terroristic threat.
Burks did not return a call seeking comment. Other teachers White said were at the meeting also did not return calls.
[. . .]
"It sounds like a case of TAKS tyranny taken to the extreme," said Joe Bean a spokesman for the Texas State Teachers Association, who said teachers and administrators are often punished for disappointing test performance.
"Once a principal gets a reputation as not able to get the scores that are required, that principal is virtually unemployable," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at mysanantonio.com ...
Post a picture of Anita White.
In the principal's defense:
Anita White
Let me submit that if they call this a terroristic threat, they don’t fully grasp what terrorism is.
I’m sure this was upsetting, but it’s hardly terrorism.
Don’t mess with Texas...teacher unions!
If you threaten a govt employee, it will be termed terrorism.
They are part of the protected class. /sarcasm
I agree with you the words”terrorist and terrorism” are used way to casually by the media.
People get used to hearing tjhose words and associate with something does not come even close.
“Terroristic threat” is from the common terminology in use by law enforcement, for decades now. Just about any threat is a terroristic threat.
Incidentally, I’m wondering how much money teachers don’t get, if those test scores aren’t what they should be. Because I find it impossible to believe the principal is motivated by shame, professionalism, overwhelming desire to impart basic skills, rivalry, or dementia.
I take it the principal never read Dale Carnegie.
Perhaps the principal read the Islamic terrorist translation of "How to Win Friends and Influence People". In the Islamist version the title of the book translates to "Silence, I Kill You!".
This is a good example of the test becoming TOOOOOOOOO important - teaching is a sideline.
“A middle school principal threatened to kill a group of science teachers “
Well, did it work ?
Obviously, this principal has a serious mental problem. He needs the boot out the door.
“A middle school principal threatened to kill a group of science teachers “
Well, did it work ?
This hypothesis must be given the only test that it deserves. Designate half of the public schools in America which are “low performing” schools and shoot the teachers of the low performing students.
But, first shoot all administrators in that local school system, the state education bureaucracy, and every last one of every employee or grant recipient of the Federal Department of Education.
Education is like other bureaucracies, in that it resembles a fish. Why a fish? Fish rot from the head down. Remove the most rotten part first.
;-)
Seems reasonable. Just what the hell DOES a principle do besides sit on his or her @ss and collect 6 digit pay with a pension anyway?
Great minds, etc.
Great minds, etc.
Just down the road from you
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