Teacher Accused of Wielding Stun Gun : Schools: A science instructor used the weapon to demonstrate electricity, official says. Police are investigating allegations that he threatened students.

Montebello police are investigating allegations that a high school science teacher brought a stun gun to class and threatened his students with it.

Jerry Woodrome, 51, has been on paid leave since the start of the school year while police investigate a series of incidents that occurred on the Montebello High School campus from July 29 to Aug. 5. Woodrome was teaching physics to 9th-grade summer school students when the alleged incidents occurred.

Woodrome started bringing the stun gun to school near the end of July, according to investigators and students.

He used the stun gun as part of a lesson on electrical conductivity, said Kenny Kim, executive director of the Montebello Teachers Assn.

“He brought it to demonstrate what conducts and what doesn’t conduct electricity,” Kim said. Woodrome, a Montebello teacher for more than 25 years, gave his version of events to Kim, but declined to comment himself. “He used it on a lot of different types of materials,” Kim said, “such as the lead versus the wood part of a pencil, a piece of paper, a gold chain.”

Some of Woodrome’s demonstrations allegedly came without warning, on a piece of paper a student was holding and the metal leg of a desk at which a student was seated. The seat of the desk was plastic and did not conduct electricity. Had the student been touching the metal leg, a stun gun charge would have shocked him, police said.

A 14-year-old girl in a different class said Woodrome had the stun gun “for about a week. He took it out. He would say, ‘God, you guys are asleep.’ He said, ‘I’m going to have to wake you guys up.’ He would point it in the direction of the students he called on. . . . He did it all week.

“I was a little bit scared,” she said. “I didn’t know what stun guns really did.” The students asked that their names not be used.

A vice principal eventually confronted Woodrome about the stun gun, Kim said. “He was told to put the gun away and he did,” Kim said.

Police said it is legal to possess a stun gun, but a crime for anyone other than a security officer to bring one onto campus.

A stun gun delivers a non-lethal charge of electricity when pressed against a person and fired.

District officials recently delivered a copy of the results of their investigation to Woodrome. The district is giving Woodrome an opportunity to respond in writing before taking further action.

Montebello police began an investigation after campus security officers reported the incident to them about a week ago. Bringing a stun gun on campus is punishable by up to a year in jail, Montebello Sgt. Herb Albert said.

“If this is true,” he added, “I wouldn’t want my child going to this guy’s class.”