Teachers Say Principal Threatened Murder if Test Scores Did Not Improve

[Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>]

NEW BRAUNFELS TEACHERS: PRINCIPAL SAID HE'D KILL THEM

Associated Press -- March 27, 2008
by Roger Croteau

New Braunfels, Texas -- 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.

Jacob Gonzales, an eighth-grade science teacher at the school who was 
not at the meeting, said another teacher, besides White, mentioned it, 
telling Gonzales "it was not spoken in a joking manner and it kind of 
alarmed him and gave him an uneasy feeling."

New Braunfels School District spokeswoman Stephanie Ferguson said Burks 
told her it did not happen. She spoke to him after learning of the 
allegation from reporters.

"I did not talk to the other teachers. Other than that, it is a 
personnel matter and I can't talk about it. We have not seen a police 
report."

White said she decided to file the police report after one of the 
teachers spoke to a school board member about the incident, without 
result. She said she also plans to file a grievance with the school board.

Before she filed the complaint on Saturday, White said, Burks told her 
she was being transferred to the Learning Center, which houses the 
district's disciplinary school, because of the test scores. She said her 
classes' standardized test scores were consistently the best in the grade.

Ferguson later released a three-sentence statement that noted White 
filed the complaint after being reassigned. The statement quoted Burks 
as saying, "All personnel decisions are made with the best interests of 
students in mind."

Many teachers complain about the importance placed on TAKS scores, 
saying a single, standardized test often does not measure how well their 
students are learning.

"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.

Bean said the TAKS provides only a snapshot of how students performed on 
that day and that students of some outstanding teachers and schools 
sometimes do not score well for a variety of reasons.

   http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5652246.html