Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 23, 1993 TAG: 9301230079
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LORAIN, OHIO LENGTH: Medium
STUDENTS BET ABOUT GIRLS KILLING TEACHER
Two junior high school students charged with plotting to kill a teacher may have felt pressured to try because classmates were betting on whether they would do it, police and school officials said Friday.A school official thwarted the alleged plot minutes before it was to be carried out Wednesday.
"It's a bizarre case," said Police Capt. Cel Rivera. "They say to this day they were going to kill her."
The two seventh-grade girls are 12 and 13.
Rivera said the 13-year-old, who planned to stab the English teacher while her 12-year-old friend held the teacher, told him "she felt she had to do it because the other kids had put her on the spot."
By Wednesday, their classmates had bet about $200 on the outcome, authorities said.
Henry Harsar, principal of 700-student Irving Junior High School in this blue-collar city about 30 miles west of Cleveland, said the alleged plot might have been classroom bragging that got out of hand.
"It could have been me," he said.
Names of the girls and the 46-year-old teacher, who was back at work Friday, were not released. Police and Harsar refused a reporter's request to interview the three.
Rivera said the girls hatched the plot Tuesday after the teacher scolded the 13-year-old for not paying attention in class.
Police said the 13-year-old told them she wanted to kill the teacher because the teacher yelled at her. The other girl said she didn't like the teacher because "she sends me to the office all the time."
Police said the girls planned to stab the teacher when the bell ending their class rang.
But Assistant Principal Jacqueline Greenhill discovered the scheme when she questioned a student who was sobbing in a hall.
The student, who was in the same English class as the two girls, told Greenhill "a teacher is going to get hurt" and described the plan.
Greenhill went to the classroom about 10 minutes before the class ended and ordered the 13-year-old to her office. A 12-inch knife was found in the girl's book bag and police were summoned. A short while later, police questioned the 12-year-old.
The youngsters were being held in a juvenile detention center Friday, awaiting a juvenile court hearing. No date was set.
Authorities hadn't decided whether to seek to try them as adults.
"The kids are getting out of control, skipping school and stuff like that," said Darlene Smith, 35, whose son attends Irving. She said he hadn't known anything about a murder plot.
Michael Taylor, 32, who attended Irving, recently moved near the school but kept his sons in schools near their old home. He said the alleged murder plot would make him reconsider plans to have his sons attend Irving next year.
"It makes you wonder what society's coming to," Taylor said.
Greenhill said staff members and counselors met individually with students who sought guidance.
"If students are in a spot where they're crying, you want to go up to them and tell them, `Everything's going to be all right,' " said Greenhill.