Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, school officials have suspended a Camp Curtin Academy middle school teacher after a student recorded him telling his class that he wished he could shoot one student at the beginning of each school year, PennLive.com reports.
Stephanie Robles, the mother of a seventh grade girl at Camp Curtin, had her daughter record the teacher repeating what he had said the previous day, because she initially didn’t believe her. Robles then posted the recording on social media. The teacher—who has not been officially identified, but whom Robles referred to as “Mr. Trujillo” on Facebook—said that he wished he could shoot one student, so that the rest of the class wouldn’t give him any problems during the school year.
“Yes,” the teacher can be heard saying on the recording, “What I said was, I used to tell my students that I wish I was allowed to shoot one person every year. The first person when I said, ‘Don’t talk!’ and they talk, [makes gun shooting noise] gets shot. The rest of the year would go smooth because you guys know I’m not kidding.”
School officials sent out a robocall to parents Thursday, reports, calling the educator’s words “highly inappropriate.”
“You may hear about a cell phone video of a threat allegedly made to students by a teacher during a class at Camp Curtin Academy middle school yesterday,” Acting Assistant Superintendent Chris Celmer said. “We are extremely concerned by what appears to be highly inappropriate and inexcusable judgment on the part of this teacher in comments made to the class.
“We do not in any condone any verbal threats toward any of our students. We immediately notified local police and other local authorities.”