Expulsion ruling upsets teachers

DISAPPROVAL: Brea Olinda High School teacher Alisa Smith, left, is consoled by Fanning Elementary second-grade teacher Kasey Ottestad, center (see full-size version), after getting out of a Brea school board meeting Monday. Smiths husband, Geoffrey, looks on. RYAN HODGSON-RIGSBEE, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER Alisa Smith, Brea Olinda High School teacher I thought they would be expelled and not returned. I felt unsafe. I was in shock, because I absolutely didnt expect it. Teresa Hampson, Brea Olinda Unified trustee (Would) the school board allow students back if they truly thought the teachers life was in danger? Tesoro update Two Tesoro High students faced a similar situation last fall: In a writing assignment in October, Scott McKnight and Sam Smith fantasized about killing English teacher Alyssa Di Somma. McKnight and Smith were suspended. The teachers union wrote a letter to Superintendent James Fleming urging him not to allow the boys back on campus. In November, a judge allowed Smith and McKnight to rejoin the football team while awaiting expulsion hearings, though neither played for Tesoro again. A different judge later refused to overturn the suspension. In December, the two sides agreed on a punishment and agreed not to disclose terms.

BREA About 30 Brea Olinda Unified teachers on Monday said trustees were wrong to allow two students to return to school after they were found to have left a threatening note about a teacher.

Four teachers addressed the board directly, while others shook their heads and jeered from the audience.

"Regardless of the students' intent, this teacher is frightened and fearful to continue teaching at Brea Olinda High School," Brea Olinda Teachers' Association President Celeste Beroza said. "School violence is a reality."

The note, found by honors chemistry teacher Alisa Smith on April 13, had a stick figure with a gun pointing at its head. It was labeled "Smith."

"Shoot her in the face," it read.

Another stick figure had flames on it.

"Burn her and then spit on her. Tie her to wall. Burn her and leave water 10 feet away."

Smith, 30, said she tried not to react in front of her students.

"I was shocked and very upset by it," she said. "I thought, 'Am I going to freak out, like I feel like?'"

Smith told campus police, who said they would not pursue the threat from a law enforcement standpoint.

Principal Jerry Halpin said he recommended two students in Smith's class be expelled.

Administrators suspended the students April 14 but allowed them to return May 9, the day after their expulsion hearing. They received suspended expulsions, which put expulsions on their records but let them attend school as long as they meet certain grade and behavior requirements.

Administrators did not release the students' names or ages because of privacy laws.

But Margie Sepulveda, who teaches English at Brea Olinda, said the decision has left students with the impression that you can get away with anything as long as you have a lawyer.

"We are astounded that a teacher could have death threats and the students be allowed to come back on campus with the perception that they got away with it," Sepulveda said. "They are back at our campus getting high-fives."

Smith left the school the day the students returned and hasn't been back since.

"I felt unsafe," she said.

Superintendent Tim Harvey said there was no way for Smith to appeal the decision.

Board member James "Bud" Reed told the audience Monday that they should have come to the May 8 meeting to address the board.

He added that the students had not gotten off scot-free; they have behavioral contracts they have to obey. Several in the crowd laughed or jeered.

"What happens if they kill the teacher?" yelled Matt Swindle, a parent in the district.

"Or another teacher?" said John Zoeckler, a Brea Olinda High School teacher.

When trustee Susie Sokol told the crowd they could not keep discussing the issue at the meeting, most of the teachers stood up and walked out of the board room.

When students are up for expulsion, a five-member administrative hearing panel made up of school and district personnel reviews the case, usually interviewing the accused and witnesses, trustee Teresa Hampson said. Smith was not interviewed.

The panel makes a recommendation to the school board, which then votes in closed session on whether to expel.

Hampson would not comment on the note itself or how it was found. But she did say that the panel assessed the event and took into account the fact that the students were honors students who had never been in trouble.

"You think the school board would allow students to be back on campus if they truly thought the teacher's life was in danger? That doesn't really make sense."

She said more than a quarter of expulsion hearings end in suspended expulsions. Harvey said these are common at Brea Olinda Unified because the district has just one comprehensive high school. In a bigger district, expelled students might be sent to another high school.

Hampson said the students had been duly punished by missing two weeks of school work and being judged before a panel.

"Being called before a body of people and judged isn't much fun. ... It's not something with no teeth."