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HOPE Academy tutor is fired after recommending student write about how to kill a teacher
By ROBERT CONNELLY
AUSTINTOWN
A HOPE Academy tutor was fired after suggesting a student write a report about how to kill a teacher.
HOPE — Helping Others Pursue Excellence — is an online extension of Austintown schools. A news release from the school said the tutor had been terminated after just a year in the district.
“The child was following the direction of a part-time, limited-contract tutor who made a very inappropriate topic suggestion to the child,” schools Superintendent Vincent Colaluca said in a statement.
“It was an irrational decision on guidance, on how to guide a student to help him with his work,” he told The Vindicator.
The 16- year-old Austintown student was cleared after a school investigation, but it was not known if he was cleared by police. School officials reported the incident to township police at 9 a.m. Wednesday, a police report said.
That report said the student detailed the five ways he would kill a teacher, including poisoning coffee or an apple and choking the teacher with a computer mouse.
The report said the student wrote in the paper, “When I do this (if I do), I will enjoy watching them suffer and enjoy my personal time of quietness and work.”
The other methods included using blunt weapons and physical force.
The police report notes the student spent three days thinking about the report before writing it.
Colaluca explained that HOPE is a credit-recovery program for high school students.
“When a student doesn’t pass a class, they can be placed there,” he said.
Although it is an online school, students come and take the classes under the guidance of tutors in two trailers on the Fitch High School campus. District teachers assign the curriculum and tutors help students on-site as needed.
All those tutors are part-time, limited-contract employees.
The website for the Austintown school district details that HOPE serves both middle and high school students.
“The students referred to HOPE Academy are typically at risk of educational failure (as indicated by poor grades, truancy, disruptive behavior, credit deficiency, or similar factors associated with temporary or permanent withdrawal from school),” the site states.
It also states that students must be referred to HOPE by school administrative personnel. The academy offers all-day school or half days, both morning and afternoon time slots.