High school students arriving for class find body of teacher, a suicide
deb...@comcast.net
YORK, Pa. (AP)- High school students arriving for class Thursday
morning found the body of a teacher who had apparently shot himself to
death the day before, a coroner said.
As many as 10 West York Area High School students may have seen the
body, Coroner Barry Bloss said. He said the shooting happened Wednesday
after school let out. He would not say precisely where inside the
school the body was found.
"We haven't put together all the information as to reasons and stuff
like that yet, but there was a note found," Bloss said. A .38-caliber
handgun also was recovered.
The man's name was not immediately released.
The school remained open Thursday, and district officials were
encouraging parents to keep their children in school. Counselors were
there to help students and school employees.
deb...@comcast.net
know what is!
Brad Ferguson
<mgw...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> On 16 Feb 2006 10:18:30 -0800, deb...@comcast.net scrawled:
>
> > If this wasn't a gesture of hostility towards his students, I don't
> > know what is!
>
> Or towards the janitor he may have expected to find him.
I can, without effort, think of half a dozen high school teachers I
wish I'd found that way.
Terry Flahiff
selfish, inconsiderate act than killing yourself such that your students
be forced to find your body. In the long run, hopefully the kids will
realise that anyone who would do such a thing is worth neither their
tears not their memories.
Barbara Sherrill
"Terry Flahiff" <tfla...@ionsys.com> wrote in message
news:43F4CCF...@ionsys.com...
> I've been a teacher all of my adult life and I can't imagine a more
> selfish, inconsiderate act than killing yourself such that your students
> be forced to find your body. In the long run, hopefully the kids will
> realise that anyone who would do such a thing is worth neither their tears
> not their memories.
>
The problem, there are 10 students out there, that will live with this for
the rest of their lives. He will be in the memories and their
nightmares.....
Barbara
J.D. Baldwin
In the previous article, Brad Ferguson <Brad Ferguson> wrote:
> I can, without effort, think of half a dozen high school teachers I
> wish I'd found that way.
I can think of a couple of middle school teachers for whome I would
gladly have cleaned, loaded and checked the gun beforehand.
--
_+_ From the catapult of |If anyone disagrees with any statement I make, I
_|70|___:)=}- J.D. Baldwin |am quite prepared not only to retract it, but also
\ / bal...@panix.com|to deny under oath that I ever made it. -T. Lehrer
***~~~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------
R H Draney
And so, with his final act, this teacher taught his students a more profound and
lasting lesson than can be found in any published curriculum....r
Barbara Sherrill
"R H Draney" <dado...@spamcop.net> wrote in message
news:dt31j...@drn.newsguy.com...
This is a lesson, I would not want my Freshman to learn.
R H Draney
>> profound and
>> lasting lesson than can be found in any published curriculum....r
>
>This is a lesson, I would not want my Freshman to learn.
<obnitpick>
That was a comma, you didn't need to use....r
Glitter Ninja
>I've been a teacher all of my adult life and I can't imagine a more
>selfish, inconsiderate act than killing yourself such that your students
>be forced to find your body.
He may have expected the janitor to find him, actually.
>In the long run, hopefully the kids will
>realise that anyone who would do such a thing is worth neither their
>tears not their memories.
So do you get up on that high horse with a ladder or a trampoline?
Stacia
J.D. Baldwin
In the previous article, Glitter Ninja <sta...@xmission.com> wrote:
> >I've been a teacher all of my adult life and I can't imagine a more
> >selfish, inconsiderate act than killing yourself such that your
> >students be forced to find your body.
>
> He may have expected the janitor to find him, actually.
Still kind of an evil, bastardly thing to do.
If you're going to off yourself, particularly in a bloody manner, go
check into a cheap motel, climb into the bathtub, put down a tarp,
call 911, then just friggin' do it. The EMTs and cops who respond
won't lose any sleep over having to scoop your brains into a biohazard
bag (it probably livens up their day, if anything), and the motel has
insurance to cover the clean-up. It would be polite to leave a few
hundred bucks to cover the deductible.
deb...@comcast.net
Mark Stickel shot himself in his classroom, officials said.
By BRENT BURKEY
Daily Record/Sunday News
West Manchester Township police were on the campus of West York Area
High School Thursday after the body of a male teacher who apparently
had committed suicide was found. YORK DAILY RECORD/SUNDAY NEWS-JASON
PLOTKIN
· E-mail photo
· Order photo reprint
(Jason Plotkin - YDR)
At bottom: · Discuss in our forums · LETTER FROM DISTRICT
Feb 16, 2006 - A popular and longtime teacher at West York Area High
School shot and killed himself overnight in his classroom, where his
students found him Thursday morning.
A small handgun and a suicide note were found next to his body.
York County Coroner Barry Bloss said the teacher had a self-inflicted
gunshot wound to the head. Bloss declined to identify the man because
this was a case of suicide and did not say if the note indicated why he
might have killed himself.
Students remembered Mark Stickel as a fun-loving art teacher who would
always smile and say hello in the hallways.
He would have turned 56 years old Thursday, according to voter
registration records.
A man who said he was a longtime family friend answered the phone at
Stickel's home Thursday afternoon and said the family was not ready to
talk.
West York Area School Supt. Emilie Lonardi said students filed to their
usual seats for a first-period class Thursday morning. With a
substitute teacher leading the class, they recited the Pledge of
Allegiance and listened to morning announcements.
Sometime later, Tyler Lindstrom, a junior, tried to throw his gum away
in the trash can but missed. He said he got up to pick it up and put it
in the trash when he saw legs on the floor. He tried to lean over a
counter to get a better look and didn't know what to think.
"My first thought was that it was a joke or someone's project because
it was an art room," he said.
He returned to his desk to think about it, then told a classmate who
looked and believed it was their teacher, Lindstrom said.
By then, the commotion caught the attention of the 12 to 15 students in
the class, who went to the back of the room.
One student touched the body to make sure that what they were seeing
was real, Lindstrom said. Another student went with the substitute
teacher to get another teacher, who tried to take Stickel's pulse.
Then the students were taken across the hall to a teachers lounge. The
district announced a "code blue" lockdown of the building, keeping
other students in their classrooms until about 11 a.m. Lonardi said the
procedure is for medical emergencies and is practiced often.
Freshman Katlyn Landes said most students thought it was a drill at
first.
"We have those a lot, so everyone went on as normal," she said.
But as the hours went on, senior Tom Markey said, rumors traveled fast
through student cell phones.
As the news of the death began to leak off school property, Lonardi
scheduled a news conference.
"Our entire West York family is grieving," she said.
Counselors helped students and faculty, and they advised that it was
best to keep the students in the school. Lonardi said staying in school
was a healing process for those who remained the entire day.
"I think the health professionals were absolutely correct," she said.
But by noon, the driveway in front of the school was packed with
parents picking up their kids.
Some parents angry
Chuck Lau came to pick up his two daughters around noon and said he was
one of many parents upset with the district.
"These kids should have been home right away this morning," Lau said.
His daughters, one a junior and one a senior at the school, were crying
in their father's truck. Lau said the teacher was one of their
favorites.
Craig Wolfrum picked up his stepdaughters separately later in the day
after they called and said they wanted to come home.
He had first taken some medicine to the school for one girl's headache,
and by that point she was already back in class. He noticed the two
ambulances and three police cars in the parking lot and asked what was
going on.
School officials said little at that point.
Students share news
"Everyone was just going home because they just couldn't take it," said
Krista LaPorte, one of Wolfrum's stepdaughters. "You would never ever
think it would happen in a school, let alone, like, in your school."
Landes and Markey said afternoon classes were a wash. Several seniors
weren't at school because it was a designated "senior skip day," and
many others went home for what Landes called "emotional reasons."
"We basically sat there in classes and talked about it," she said.
Even though Landes didn't know the teacher or have him for class, the
news was unsettling.
Tevin Adams, a sophomore, also said the school day was "crazy."
Jenn Goldsmith, a senior at West York, heard the news when her
grandmother called her. Goldsmith wasn't in class Thursday.
She described Stickel as always happy and smiling when she saw him in
the halls. He would say hi and ask how she was doing.
"I never heard anybody say anything bad about him," she said.
Wendy Chatley Green
(J.D. Baldwin) wrote:
:
:In the previous article, Glitter Ninja <sta...@xmission.com> wrote:
:> >I've been a teacher all of my adult life and I can't imagine a more
:> >selfish, inconsiderate act than killing yourself such that your
:> >students be forced to find your body.
:>
:> He may have expected the janitor to find him, actually.
:
:Still kind of an evil, bastardly thing to do.
:
:If you're going to off yourself, particularly in a bloody manner, go
:check into a cheap motel, climb into the bathtub, put down a tarp,
:call 911, then just friggin' do it. The EMTs and cops who respond
:won't lose any sleep over having to scoop your brains into a biohazard
:bag (it probably livens up their day, if anything), and the motel has
:insurance to cover the clean-up. It would be polite to leave a few
:hundred bucks to cover the deductible.
I know of a man (neighbor of a friend in Springfield, MO) who
put a note in his mailbox Saturday evening asking the mail carrier to
call the police because he'd killed himself. Police found him Monday
dead of a gunshot to the head.
--
Wendy Chatley Green
PirateJohn
won't lose any sleep over having to scoop your brains into a biohazard
bag (it probably livens up their day, if anything >>
Friend of mine who was a retired cop told me once that he never got
over the suicides that he saw. They disturbed him well after he
retired.
Cops are human, too. Most of them, anyway.
Hyfler/Rosner
"J.D. Baldwin" <INVALID...@example.com.invalid> wrote
in message news:dt3lh1$d0s$1...@reader2.panix.com...
>
> In the previous article, Glitter Ninja
> <sta...@xmission.com> wrote:
>> >I've been a teacher all of my adult life and I can't
>> >imagine a more
>> >selfish, inconsiderate act than killing yourself such
>> >that your
>> >students be forced to find your body.
>>
>> He may have expected the janitor to find him, actually.
>
> Still kind of an evil, bastardly thing to do.
>
> If you're going to off yourself, particularly in a bloody
> manner, go
> check into a cheap motel, climb into the bathtub, put down
> a tarp,
> call 911, then just friggin' do it. The EMTs and cops who
> respond
> won't lose any sleep over having to scoop your brains into
> a biohazard
> bag (it probably livens up their day, if anything), and
> the motel has
> insurance to cover the clean-up. It would be polite to
> leave a few
> hundred bucks to cover the deductible.
I know there's a certain amount of sarcasm here, and I know
you, as an EMT and Terry as a former teacher, have a bit
more credence on this subject, but I think you have to
remember that people who kill themselves are probably not in
the best position to make the best decisions.
They are not in their right minds.
J.D. Baldwin
In the previous article, Hyfler/Rosner <rel...@rcn.com> wrote:
> I know there's a certain amount of sarcasm here,
On this narrow subject -- consideration for those who are going to
find your body -- I am perfectly serious.
> and I know you, as an EMT and Terry as a former teacher, have a bit
> more credence on this subject, but I think you have to remember that
> people who kill themselves are probably not in the best position to
> make the best decisions.
>
> They are not in their right minds.
True enough in a lot of cases, but sometimes suicides are plenty
rational, at least about some things. Suicide is often intended as a
violent act against one's survivors ("I'll show *them*!" being a
common enough thought). Hey, if that's what you're up to, at least no
one can question your commitment.
But the least one can try to minimize the collateral damage.
Bill Schenley
> and I know you, as an EMT and Terry as a former
> teacher, have a bit more credence on this subject,
> but I think you have to remember that people who
> kill themselves are probably not in the best position
> to make the best decisions.
> They are not in their right minds.
I was watching TV with my daughter the other night ... when they
showed a clip of a woman walking down the middle of I-90, in 25°
temperatures, with only a pair of pink stretch pants on. The pants
had red hearts on them ... and they were *really* stretched ...
My daughter said ... "She must be crazy to wear pants like that."
And I said ... "Let me get this straight. If you were driving down
I-90 and saw this woman, in 25 degree temperatures, with no top on ...
Before you'd dial 911 ... you'd call the Fashion Police?"
So that was pretty much my take on the suicide. No one knows the
circumstances leading up to his death ... or the level of despair he
found his way to.
Maybe he loved teaching and just wanted to be in the classroom when he
died.
But when you're batshit crazy ... where, when, how ... and what you
are wearing are not part of the equation ...
J.D. Baldwin
In the previous article, Louisiana Lou <Louisi...@hotmail.com>
wrote:
> Remember that Stanford grad student who murdered his professor with
> a sledgehammer?
Remember him? I was in grad school at the University of Maryland when
he got out of prison. We threw a party.
I remember discussing the case with a Ph.D. candidate who was the
gentlest, meekest woman I ever knew. She said, "I don't condone what
he did, but I sure understand it." And there was a little fire in her
eyes when she said it.
PirateJohn
community somewhere these days.
Glitter Ninja
>But the least one can try to minimize the collateral damage.
Many do. I don't know why this teacher chose his workplace to kill
himself, and having worked as a teacher I can't personally imagine why
someone would kill themselves in a classroom. Possibly he thought at
least a janitor would find him quickly when no one would have found him
at his home. Maybe he was trying to cause a stir and hoped children
would find him, but at this point, it's speculation. We *don't* know.
So the people who are wishing this man to suffer in eternal hellfire
for his actions are being completely ridiculous. They don't know
anything -- not the name of the teacher, anything about his life, what
was going through his mind at the time, *nothing*.
I know there's no shortage of know-it-all closed-minded jerks on
Usenet, but for the sake of the gods, people, surely you can recognize
the difference between speculation and reality.
Stacia
James Neibaur
> I know there's a certain amount of sarcasm here, and I know
> you, as an EMT and Terry as a former teacher, have a bit
> more credence on this subject, but I think you have to
> remember that people who kill themselves are probably not in
> the best position to make the best decisions.
>
> They are not in their right minds.
Exactly. The choice of suicide itself trumps any stupid decision as to
location.
JN
J.D. Baldwin
>
> Many do. I don't know why this teacher chose his workplace to
> kill himself, and having worked as a teacher I can't personally
> imagine why someone would kill themselves in a classroom. Possibly
> he thought at least a janitor would find him quickly when no one
> would have found him at his home. Maybe he was trying to cause a
> stir and hoped children would find him, but at this point, it's
> speculation. We *don't* know.
My comments were more in the nature of generalities than a specific
comment on this guy. You're right: we don't know. While I think
it's still fair to note that he was at least inconsiderate in his
choice of location, it's also fair to note that rudeness was far
from being his worst personal issue.
Wendy Chatley Green
(J.D. Baldwin) wrote:
:
:In the previous article, Louisiana Lou <Louisi...@hotmail.com>
:wrote:
:> Remember that Stanford grad student who murdered his professor with
:> a sledgehammer?
:
:Remember him? I was in grad school at the University of Maryland when
:he got out of prison. We threw a party.
:
:I remember discussing the case with a Ph.D. candidate who was the
:gentlest, meekest woman I ever knew. She said, "I don't condone what
:he did, but I sure understand it." And there was a little fire in her
:eyes when she said it.
OTOH, one of my Latin professors saved clippings of stories
about such murders. She wanted them as warnings of how not to be
murdered herself.
--
Wendy Chatley Green
Terry Flahiff
Glitter Ninja wrote:
Probably by escalator. Anything else would have taken far too much effort.
Your criticism is perfectly valid. If I have had one recurring fault in
my career (I've actually have had many) it is the ability to be overly
critical of the teachers' tendencies to act or speak without developing
an innate ability to consider the consequences on their students. That
is judgmental to an extreme.
I'm quite sure that anyone who would subject children to the horror of
discovering the results of their suicide would be suffering from some
terrible pain or pathological anger which places their judgment beyond
control.
Suicide, ultimately is the act of someone who has developed a
perspective of the world which draws all of it's power from a personal
pain. In that sense it is self-centred but not necessarily culpable.
I am and always will be appalled when students are hurt by the
decisions, words and actions of their teachers but, we are human and do
so with great frequency. I impact my students' lives on a daily basis.
Hopefully, it is usually for the good but inevitably it is often
detrimentally. I really do regret the pain which drove this taecher to
do what he did but those kids will never get past the consequences of
his decision.
> Stacia
>
>