Indiana Teacher Makes Gun Threat On Chalk Board
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A high school business teacher has been removed from campus after posting a threatening message to some of his students on a chalk board last week.
The message, written on Friday to a group sophomores and juniors taking a personal finance class at Edison Junior-Senior High School in Lake Station, Ind., read:
"Period 6: (only)
(a) You are idiots!!!
(b) The guns are loaded!!!
(c) Care to try me?????"
CBS 2 is not naming the teacher because no criminal charges have been filed. The teacher was told to leave the school on Friday morning, according to Lake Station Supt. Dan DeHaven.
"He had been absent two days prior, and he was reacting to some comments that were made by the substitute teacher," DeHaven said.
The 28-year veteran teacher, who is the son-in-law of a school board member, will not be back in school on Tuesday or Wednesday, and the educator's future at the school is uncertain pending an investigation, DeHaven said.
The message came to the school's attention after a student snapped a cell phone picture of it and posted it to Facebook, DeHaven said.
The school resource officer continually monitors students' Facebook pages and saw the picture then reported it to school administrators.
But district leaders took the apparent threat seriously and immediately ordered the business teacher off school property.
"We're not saying in fact that there is a threat. That's what we're determining by interviewing the students, the staff," police chief Kevin Garber said.
A district-wide phone call went out to parents Monday, three days after the incident. It said "your student was never in danger" and "the staff member is currently not in school"
But one parent CBS 2 interviewed said it was too little too late.
"He could have had (a gun) with him," said the parent, who asked not to be identified. "It could have been in his suitcase it could have been in his car. It could have been on him."
The feelings of frustration spilled over at a packed community meeting held Monday night at city hall.
"My daughter is scared to go to class," one parent said.
A school field trip that the teacher was supposed to lead in Indianapolis this past weekend was canceled.
