Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Teacher Sought 'Hit' on Student, Cops Say

ATLANTA (Nov. 17) -- A suburban Atlanta high school teacher has been accused of pursuing a "hit" on a 16-year-old student last month, and the case is under investigation by local authorities.

Randolph Forde -- who teaches at Mundy's Mill High School in Clayton County -- has been charged with making terroristic threats and was released on bond.

He is currently on administrative leave from his job with pay and faces an employment hearing in early December, Charles White, a school district spokesman, said Tuesday.



A Clayton County Police report says the incident occurred October 9. The suspect took a student off a school bus and told him he "would pay him to kill the victim," the report says. When the student asked who the target would be, the suspect said he'd write the name on a note, it says.

"The teacher held a piece of paper up with the victim's name on it," said Officer Otis Willis III of the Clayton police.

Attorney Terance Madden, who represents alleged target and his family, issued a statement saying that problems between the boy and the teacher go back to "on or about September 29," when "Forde allegedly called my client outside the class and asked him if he is gay."
Then "on or about September 30," the two had an argument in class and Forde threatened "to hit him in his 'effin' mouth," Madden's statement said.

"Not only did my client report the verbal altercation and verbal threat to the vice principal of Mundy's Mill HS, he also reported that Mr. Forde asked him outside the classroom for the inappropriate question of whether he was gay," the statement said. "Apparently nothing was done by the school administration to either Mr. Forde or my client, because Mr. Forde was back in the classroom on October 1, as was my client."

Madden said the school didn't take any action until after a police report was filed on October 12 about the incident.

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