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Akron school board will fire instructor over weapons arrest
By John Higgins
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Tuesday, Oct 28, 2008
The Akron school board has given a science teacher at Akron's Buchtel High School facing weapons and explosives charges 10-day notice that he will be fired.
Benjamin B. Terril, hired by the district in 1996, has been suspended since his Labor Day arrest.
Terril, 50, was arrested after police responded to an anonymous report that he and another man were aiming guns at each other's heads. Police found a stash of weapons and explosives in Terril's Kenmore home.
His case in Summit County Common Pleas Court is pending.
The board is required to give 10 days' notice of an intent to terminate a contract and will vote on the actual termination at its next meeting on Nov. 10.
The resolution reflects the charges in the indictment: carrying a concealed weapon, unlawful possession of dangerous ordnance, using weapons while intoxicated, illegal use or possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of marijuana.
The resolution also lists as grounds for termination dishonesty and falsification of district required information.
Terril could not be reached to comment.
Terril claimed on his resume that he served in the U.S. Army from 1975 to 1991, including the elite 82nd Airborne.
A WKYC Channel 3 investigation last month determined that was not true.
Superintendent David James said Monday night that the district has come to the same conclusion after government officials were unable to confirm Terril's military service.
''The record shows that he had no prior military service,'' James said. ''To our knowledge, there is no military record.''
Terril also did not acknowledge during the hiring process that in 1992, he was arrested in Stark County for carrying a concealed weapon — a felony — and driving while intoxicated, a first-degree misdemeanor, according to court records.
A jury found him not guilty of the weapon charge. Terril pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charge of driving while intoxicated.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation sent a letter to Akron Public Schools dated Sept. 4, 1996, certifying that the bureau had ''no record'' of an arrest record on Terril.
According to Terril's personnel file, he was paid about $59,000 in annual salary for the last school year and is due to receive about $63,000 this school year.
In December 1999, Terril received a letter of reprimand from Richard Roberts, the district's executive director of human resources, over something Terril said to other faculty members about ''wanting to use a shotgun'' when referring to screaming students in a nearby multiple disability classroom.
In his rebuttal letter, Terril said his comment was made in jest among colleagues, out of earshot from students, on a particularly difficult afternoon following more than five weeks of ''virtually nonstop matches of extremely shrill screaming, some of which have lasted for two or more hours at a time.''
Terril said someone asked him if he could imagine going home to that screaming for the next 20 years and he said he couldn't.
''I then added, tongue-in-cheek, that I'd use a shotgun first,'' according to Terril's letter. ''I'd rather spend the next 20 years in prison where there is at least peace and quiet, than to face those challenges. I added that I could claim 'the Twinkie Defense' and some modern jury would probably agree.''
He also noted in his rebuttal letter that he was the building and divisional Teacher of the Year in 1997-98, Key Club founder and adviser and a baseball coach.
However, Rita Stith, one of the staff members who heard the shotgun comment, reported that ''I looked at him and said 'I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that' as I thought he was just joking, but then he looked me square in the face and said emphatically 'I would like to take a shotgun to them!' ''
Roberts' reprimand letter indicates that he believed Terril was joking about the shotgun.
''However, even making such a statement in jest is inappropriate and it will not be tolerated, now or in the future,'' Roberts wrote.
John Higgins can be reached at 330-996-3792 or jhiggins@thebeaconjournal.com.
The Akron school board has given a science teacher at Akron's Buchtel High School facing weapons and explosives charges 10-day notice that he will be fired.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Stow, OH
Posted 08:27 AM, 10/28/2008
I remember when this story came out how I was lambasted on here by all the gun people for criticizing this clown .I stated then ,I own a gun ,but I don't get drunk and go waving it around in public.Now we find out he lied and has no military record at all and frankly I wouldn't be surprised to learn he has no teaching degree either .
Posted 12:50 PM, 10/28/2008
Nice job, Akron schools, for investigating the guy before he was hired. Makes us all feel so safe.
Posted 03:18 PM, 10/28/2008
teaching at that school I would have more than 1 gun and a few bombs. he is out gunned in every class.
Posted 03:44 PM, 10/28/2008
I blame APS for hiring this guy in the first. I am sure there were red flags, but someone looked the other way. This type of education, is not needed in the public school system.
Posted 08:36 PM, 10/28/2008
I used to live in Akron and my daughter attended Buchtel High on Copley Road. I dreaded the day she started and by the end of the school year I didn't want her to go back. It was 80% Black and there was a fight everyday all over that school. I transferred her 2 Central Hower the next year. She was so far behind in her studies, it took 2 grading periods for her to catch up.
This teacher doesn't come as much of a surprise 2 me.
We live in Tampa, Fla these days and this is nothing compared 2 what the teachers are doing down here. There are more PEDOPHILES in our school systems; they make this teacher look like a "saint".
Posted 06:27 AM, 10/29/2008
Whatever the reason he clearly doesn't need to be in our schools. but does anyone doubt that this man was probably driven to this behavior by a school of unruly out of control teenagers? Has anyone ever stepped foot in a school during a change of classes?
Posted 06:50 AM, 10/29/2008
You moved her to Central Hower to catch up?? lol You are so correct about Tampa schools. The teachers were hired when they had a lack of teachers and all you needed was a degree in any field and you could be a teacher! Its amazing how many teachers have been fired and how many are messing with children.
Posted 08:52 AM, 10/29/2008
Most of these teachers are just there for their 8 hours and to collect their check on payday.Such a shame.
Posted 10:56 AM, 10/29/2008
To the writer from Tampa. Kids are going to get into confrontattion. what does 80% of the kids being black have to do with anything???? If your daughter was that far behind then it is a reflection on the parent not on the school system.
Akron, Oh
Posted 11:27 AM, 10/29/2008
Nadine. People need to take responsibility for their behavior. Please don't make excuses by blaming the man's behavior on "out of control teenagers." Why don't you just claim, "the devil made him do it" or better yet blame it on "school bullies" like people mistakenly did over Columbine?
Akron, Oh
Posted 11:29 AM, 10/29/2008
Olivia, you don't know this writer's situation. Quit being so bigoted and nasty. Our school systems have much improvement to do and many times, they are the problem and not the parents.
Posted 03:03 PM, 10/29/2008
I graduated from The University of Akron in 2007 with a Teaching degree in Secondary Education. I did most of my field work at Buchtel and Central Hower. Students at both schools were a delight to work with and appreciated having someone in the classroom who actually cared about them. You cannot label these children as "bad or troubled teenagers" just because there are "teachers" (and I'm using the word "teacher" lightly) in the school who cannot control them. You need to think about where these students come from. Most of them go home to an empty house because their single parent is working at their second job. Some students are going home to take care of their siblings, or maybe even their own children. Education, love and support all starts at home. If kids do not experience these things as they are growing up, they will not be able to hand them out to the rest of the world. It takes a strong, dedicated person to work with young adults. This man obviously does not need to be in the school system, but it is not because of the students.
To Wilma, I think you have made the most ignorant, ridiculous comment I have ever heard. Suggesting that teachers should carry weapons and bombs because they are "outgunned" is absurd. Obviously you are stereotyping these kids because of the area they are in, which makes you a racist among other things. I wouldn't be surprised if you have jumped on the Bush/McCain bandwagon. When kids hear negative comments such as your own, it doesn't do anything but discourage them even more. If adults tell children they are nothing, what would make them think any different? And we wonder why today's youth is troublesome...
akron, oh
Posted 05:47 PM, 10/29/2008
Today's youth is 'troublesome' because of the lack of parenting at home. APS students consistently rate pretty poorly compared to other districts for a variety of reasons. A ghetto mentality by any other name is still a ghetto.
Posted 10:37 AM, 11/04/2008
That's the most ghetto teacher I've ever heard of,and get this.....he's white!lmfao
Send him to Iraq!
