Educator Charged With Trying to Kill His Wife

The dean of students at Sylmar High School, who has been charged with attempting to murder his wife, was described by colleagues Monday as an affable professional with a clean record.

Robert Moss, 57, who is also an adult-school instructor at John F. Kennedy High in Granada Hills, was charged with holding a pistol to the head of his estranged wife, Linda, and firing a shot into the ceiling of his Saugus home.

“My understanding is that he had an outstanding career, never had any problems and was well liked,” said Walt Greene, the Los Angeles Unified School District’s director of employee services.

Moss pleaded not guilty Friday in Newhall Municipal Court to charges of second-degree attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon.

Prosecutors said the couple, who separated in April, were arguing over his drinking when she ran into a bedroom, locked the door and phoned the Sheriff’s Department for help. Moss, brandishing a .44-caliber revolver, kicked in the door and was wrestling with her on the bed, still holding the gun, when deputies found them, prosecutors said.

Deputies said Linda Moss told them she knocked the gun away from her head as it fired, but Robert Moss said he deliberately fired into the ceiling.

Linda Moss was not injured.

Moss, a 27-year employee of the school district, taught at Sylmar High for over 20 years before being appointed to the six-hour-a-day dean’s job in 1992. He taught at Kennedy High the other two hours each day.

Sylmar High School administrators did not answer requests for comment on Moss’ duties at the school. But Greene said Moss’ position commonly involves counseling and disciplining students.

Greene said the district has placed Moss on leave without pay and suspended his teaching credentials. A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for July 2. Moss was ordered held on $525,000 bail.