Education

Terrorist Teacher Seeks Retrial

By Liana Loewus — September 02, 2008 1 min read
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This June, Susan Romanyszyn, a veteran 4th grade teacher, was convicted of 11 counts of terrorist threats. Alleged to have been angry about her 5th grade classroom assignment, Romanyszyn was accused of making violent threats, which mentioned bombs and death, to her Longstreth Elementary School in Buck’s County, Pennsylvania. Today she is hoping three anonymous notes will persuade the judge to throw out her conviction, according to The Philadelphia Enquirer.

Two of the notes, which were purportedly handwritten by students--complete with spelling and grammatical errors--were sent to Romanyszyn’s attorney’s office. “we were tired of getting yelled at all the time,” the letters state. “we didn’t think they would think a teacher would do it. we are so sorry to Miss Romonison she should not be in trouble for something we did.”

The judge in the case also received a third note--typed with a handwritten envelope-- purportedly from an unnamed juror. That letter stated that “a couple of the jurors…had decided already that she [Romanyszyn] must be guilty because she was arrested and it was all in the news.” Last week a handwriting expert suggested a possible link to a 5th grader, who was initially suspected of the threats.

Battling cancer, Romanyszyn is under house arrest pending a decision from the judge.

A version of this news article first appeared in the Web Watch blog.