Pa. girl, 16, gets probation for pushing teacher down bleachers

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A 16-year-old junior will serve probation, not juvenile detention, for pushing a teacher down 20 rows of bleacher steps during a Pennsylvania high school pep rally.

The Morning Call of Allentown reports the girl was sentenced Thursday. She had previously been found delinquent – the juvenile court equivalent of guilty – on aggravated assault and other charges in the Nov. 6 incident at Louis E. Dieruff High School in Allentown.

The girl and her attorney, Andrea Olsovsky, insist she didn’t mean to push the teacher.

But Lehigh County Assistant District Attorney Jared Hanna argued that the girl was minimizing the incident, in which she allegedly also punched the teacher.

The girl must also write a letter of apology to the 51-year-old teacher, Mary Alice Matzo, who suffered back, knee and neck injuries.