Classmates’ Wagers May Have Spurred Plot to Kill 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 plan minutes before it apparently 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 girl, who allegedly planned to stab the English teacher while her 12-year-old friend restrained the teacher, told him she had no choice but to make good on the threat.

“She felt she had to do it because the other kids had put her on the spot,” Rivera said.

By Wednesday, their classmates had bet about $200 on the outcome, authorities said.

Henry Harsar, principal of 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,” Harsar said.

The names of the girls and the 46-year-old teacher, who was back at work Friday, were not released.

Rivera said the girls came up with their plot Tuesday after the teacher scolded the 13-year-old for not paying attention in class.

Police said the 13-year-old told them that she wanted to kill the teacher because the teacher yelled at her. The other girl said she did not 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 alleged plot when she questioned a student who was crying in a hallway. 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 Friday in a juvenile detention center, awaiting a juvenile court hearing. No date was set.