uINDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana’s largest teachers union says teachers at an elementary school were shot with plastic pellets during active-shooter training.
Members of the Indiana State Teachers Association told the state Senate’s education committee Wednesday the teachers were left with welts, bruises and abrasions after being struck in January by plastic pellets as a local sheriff’s office conducted the training.
The Indianapolis Star reports the union wants lawmakers to amend a school safety bill to add language that would prohibit teachers from being shot with any sort of ammunition.
Bill sponsor Republican Rep. Wendy McNamara of Evansville seemed amenable Wednesday to some sort of an addition. She says she doesn’t believe “something like that should take place in an active-shooter drill.”
uPOLICE: MAN KILLED PREGNANT STEPMOM, CALLED 911 AT CEMETERY: EUSTIS, Fla. (AP) — Authorities in Florida say a 21-year-old man strangled his pregnant stepmother and called 911 from a cemetery to confess to killing her.
Police officers found Ian Anselmo in Sue Ellen Anselmo’s SUV on March 13. The 39-year-old mother of six was bleeding and unconscious in the driver’s seat, a cord wrapped taut around her neck.
Lake County charged Ian Anselmo in the assault of his stepmother, but offered no motive in a probable cause affidavit. The charges are likely to be upgraded because she later died.
His father, John Anselmo, tells the Orlando Sentinel “this whole thing seems so weird.” In the 911 call, authorities say Ian Anselmo mentioned an argument. They offered few other details.
The Anselmos had separated a week before the slaying.
u94-YEAR-OLD WWII VETERAN FINALLY GETS HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA: SHREWSBURY, Mass. (AP) — A 94-year-old World War II veteran has received his high school diploma — 74 years after he would have gotten had he not enlisted.
Paul Snow says he felt “naked” from all the attention he received Thursday during a ceremony at St. John’s High School, but says he always wanted to get his diploma. The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports the Worcester native enlisted in the U.S. Navy a day before his 18th birthday in 1943, and was honorably discharged about three years later.
Democratic U.S. Rep. James McGovern and St. John’s High School worked together to award a diploma to Snow as a tribute to his service. Snow was awarded with an honorary diploma dated June 17, 1945.
uMAN WITH BACKYARD BOMB GETS YEAR IN PRISON: TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man convicted of setting off a pipe bomb in his backyard has been sentenced to a year in prison.
Court records show that 61-year-old Joseph Caltagirone was sentenced Friday in Tampa federal court. He pleaded guilty in December to possessing an unregistered destructive device.
Tampa police say the bomb squad happened to be conducting training last April when they heard a loud explosion. They followed a greyish-white smoke plume to Caltagirone’s home, where they found PVC piping, hobby fuse, and chemicals commonly used to make explosives. Investigators also reported finding a pipe bomb that contained an explosive mixture of Tannerite.
uEX-PRINCIPAL: RIGHTS WERE VIOLATED WHEN LOSING JOB OVER GIFT: CASCO TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A former Michigan school principal says his rights were violated when he was forced out of his job for giving a gift that he said was based on an inside joke to a woman who was leaving for another job.
But the superintendent alleges the security guard who was given the wooden penis by John Stanton felt sexually harassed.
Stanton filed a federal lawsuit in January against Superintendent Leonard Woodside, 18 months after he says he was forced to resign at Anchor Bay High School in St. Clair County. Stanton says the security guard who got the gift was not upset as officials had claimed.
The woman filed an affidavit and said she “was not offended.”
The Detroit News reports that the item was confiscated from a student. Stanton says he returned it to the woman as a funny gift.
uSUBSTITUTE TEACHER ARRESTED AFTER GUN FIRES IN CLASS: BLOUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — Police arrested a substitute teacher in Alabama on Friday after his gun went off in a first-grade classroom.
No one at Blountsville Elementary School was injured in the incident. But authorities tell news outlets that Henry Rex Weaver, 72, is in custody and will face charges.
Blount County Sheriff Mark Moon said students were in the classroom with Weaver when a gun that was in his pocket discharged.
“It (the sound) alerted administrators,” Moon said. The sheriff said Moon was detained and later jailed.
Blount County District Attorney Pamela Casey said Weaver will face charges of reckless endangerment, third-degree assault and possession of a firearm on school grounds, Al.com reported.
“Obviously I’m concerned about a substitute teacher bringing a gun to school, and what we can do to prevent that in the future,” Moon said.
Records aren’t yet available to show whether Weaver has a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.
uTEXAS COUNTRY SINGER DIES WHEN GUN ACCIDENTALLY DISCHARGES: THE WOODLANDS, Texas (AP) — A country music singer has died in Texas after his manager says a revolver he was handling during a music video shoot accidentally discharged.
Montgomery County Justice of the Peace Wayne Mack says 35-year-old Justin Carter died last weekend at his apartment in The Woodlands, north of Houston. Carter’s manager, Mark Atherton, tells KTRK-TV the singer was using the gun as a prop for a music video he was filming when it went off.
Carter had released the single “Love Affair” just days before his death on iTunes and other music services. A YouTube channel also carries several of his music videos.
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