Youth Back in School; Teachers in Burbank Upset

A John Burroughs High School student who avoided expulsion after allegedly striking a teacher and threatening to kill him and another teacher was suspended by the school principal for five days following the incident, Burbank school district officials said Tuesday.

The decision by the Burbank school board last week not to expel the teen-ager triggered a one-day wildcat strike by all but three of the teachers at Burroughs on Friday.

The student was accused of hitting teacher George Rosales in the shoulder Sept. 27 while Rosales and another teacher, David Hermans, tried to break up a fistfight in a school hallway. The teachers alleged that the student threatened to kill them.

Burroughs Principal Tim Buchanan said Tuesday that he immediately removed the youth from school until the Oct. 17 expulsion hearing.

The board decided the case after a five-hour closed session. Testifying at the hearing were the two teachers, the student and his parents. Also attending were attorneys for the board and the student and Burroughs High School administrators who had recommended expulsion, school board President Vivian Kaufman said.

Following the hearing, the student was allowed to return to Burroughs and was granted an excused absence for eight of the 13 school days he missed prior to the hearing. The remaining five days are listed as an unexcused absence or suspension, Supt. Arthur N. Pierce said.

Teachers angry with the board decision said it is too lenient and will encourage future classroom violence. Following the one-day strike, teachers called for the district to install emergency buzzers or telephones in classrooms and hire on-campus security guards.

In a written statement defending the board action, Kaufman said “only the members of this board know the full story” because witnesses testified separately in the closed hearing.