Parent threatens TeWinkle teacher
Deepa Bharath and Marisa O’Neil
A TeWinkle Middle School parent has been banned from campus for seven
days after he threatened his daughter’s teacher.
The father called his daughter’s math teacher out of class at
about 10 a.m. Tuesday and threatened him after a misunderstanding,
Costa Mesa Police Lt. John FitzPatrick said.
Police and school officials would not provide details about what
led to the altercation.
“The parent told the teacher, ‘I’m gonna [expletive] you up,’”
FitzPatrick said, reading from a police report about the incident.
The parent reportedly held up a clenched fist in front of the
teacher and looked at him face to face, he said.
“The teacher said he was scared and he thought the parent was
going to hit him,” FitzPatrick said.
But the parent did not hit him and walked away, FitzPatrick said.
The teacher approached the authorities, and Costa Mesa police school
resource officers were called.
“The teacher did not want the parent arrested,” he said.
Instead, the teacher suggested that he, the parent and the
principal meet and clear up the misunderstanding, FitzPatrick said.
Costa Mesa police are “letting the school handle the situation,” he
said.
The “situation was not an assault, but was a verbal assault,” said
Newport-Mesa Unified School District spokeswoman Jane Garland, who
initially said no police report was filed.
“The teacher is not pressing charges,” she said. “We’ve handled it
internally, and we’ve imposed the district’s Civility Code by not
allowing [the parent] to be on campus for seven days.”
The code defines what is acceptable conduct for teachers, parents
and students when they are on campus, Garland said. The father will
be allowed back on campus after the seven days, she said.
Garland also said it was a misunderstanding, that the parent was
upset over something that “was not correct.”
“We consider it an unfortunate incident with the parent getting
overly excited,” she said.
Such incidents are uncommon in the Costa Mesa schools, FitzPatrick
said.
“This is a rare incident,” he said. “Most parents want to hear
both sides of the story before they jump into something like this.”
* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be
reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@latimes.com.
MARISA O’NEIL covers education. She may be reached at (949) 574-4268
or by e-mail at marisa.oneil@latimes.com.
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