Teaching is rough, but you probably shouldn't be in the profession if you're thinking about shooting your students.
A high school geometry teacher in the state of Washington has been charged with felony harassment for allegedly threatening to shoot students, KING-TV reports. Julie Elizabeth Hillend-Jones, 58, told her caseworker that she was "gonna shoot the kids," and then doubled down on her comments when authorities started to investigate.
When the caseworker asked Hillend-Jones if she misheard her, the teacher repeated her statement, and then the caseworker called 911. Hillend-Jones was arrested on Wednesday.
“Everybody knows you don’t talk about guns or make any threats in school,” Pierce County Sheriff’s Detective Ed Troyer said. “If the student does it, they’re going to jail. Now we have a teacher doing it. They’re also going to jail, so she’s going to be booked in jail as we look into this a little bit further.”
“The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department is conducting an investigation of an Emerald Ridge High School staff member who made threats against students during a conversation off campus on Tuesday," the Puyallup School District said in a statement. The normal protocol for threats was followed including immediate notification of law enforcement. The staff member was not at school today. Making threats against the safety of students and staff is a felony crime and taken very seriously by Puyallup School District.”
