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Updated: 12:21 PM Mar 2, 2010
Mom Who Tape Recorded Teacher Now Faces Charges for Disrupting School
Tensions at one elementary school are reaching a boiling point. It all started months ago when a mom ruffled feathers by sending her kindergarten son to school armed with a secret tape recorder. Now, that mom is facing charges for disrupting school last week.
Posted: 10:52 PM Mar 1, 2010Reporter: Kallie Cart Email Address: kallie.cart@wsaz.com |
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BUFFALO, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Tensions at one elementary school are reaching a boiling point. It all started months ago when a mom ruffled feathers by sending her kindergarten son to school armed with a secret tape recorder. Now, that mom is facing charges for disrupting school last week.
Kathie Crouse is facing disorderly conduct and disruption of the school process charges for an incident involving the Buffalo Elementary School Principal last Thursday. Crouse is running for the county school board.
Several parents were at the Putnam County School board meeting Monday night because they were upset with what happened at the school last week.
Crouse says she was concerned about ice in the school parking lot. She says she was trying to tell the principal but was being ignored.
"I told him (the principal), I said, 'When a parent is at the door trying to get your attention and waving urgently at you to come here, do you not think that they urgently need you?' " Crouse says. "I walk away and I go around the corner of the hallway, and I hear, 'You're not my boss.' So I turn around and I go back and I told him, 'No I'm not your boss, but I can cause you three kinds of hell.' "
Crouse says she meant "paperwork" and "report him to the county board office." But her words were viewed as a threat. On Monday, a police report was filed against Crouse.
The police report also alleges that Crouse gave the middle finger to the principal.
"I was a little upset about some language that was used in front of my son," Dan Rinick told the school board. "The f-bomb was dropped, close enough within earshot."
Crouse says she didn't cuss and she never gave the principal the middle finger.
The incident has pitted parents against parents. Several of the parents at the board meeting say they were also upset that their young children were secretly tape recorded earlier in the year. That tape recording revealed the teacher and her aide yelling at students. It was given to the news media by Crouse. The teacher and her aide are both still suspended while an investigation is underway.
Michelle Blankenship is the aide's daughter. Blankenship also has a son in kindergarten and a daughter in the third grade. She says things have been spiraling out of control since the tape recording incident.
"She was saying that the teacher and the aide in the beginning of the year was verbally abusing kids and, in my opinion, she's doing the same thing," Blankenship says.
But Crouse she believes she is being targeted as a form of revenge.
"I just see this as another form of harassment," Crouse says.
Parents also were upset that the school was not put on lockdown after the incident Thursday. School Board members say they knew nothing about the incident until the parents brought it up at the meeting Monday night.
WSAZ.com tried to reach the school principal to find out why the police report wasn't filed until Monday. Our calls were not returned.
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