Teacher Pleads Not Guilty to Lying About Attack

A Compton teacher who says that four students emptied a waste basket filled with excrement on her has pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge that she lied about the incident to police.

At her arraignment Tuesday in Compton Municipal Court, Shannan Barron, 28, stood by her account that students she could not identify doused her after her second-period class July 16 at Dominguez High School.

But Compton police say that Barron, a first-year teacher, made inconsistent statements about the incident, and that they cannot find witnesses to corroborate her story. A crime lab report also indicates that excrement found on her clothes may have been her own, police say.

Barron has not returned to class since the incident because, her attorney says, she is still upset by the attack and the charge against her, which carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. She maintains that a polygraph test administered in August gives credence to her story.