KINDERGARTEN TEACHERS THREATENED BY FELLOW TEACHER

Stowers Principal put on “indefinite leave” for reporting incident to Sheriff.

By Jerry Bernstein

What do you do with a principal who puts the safety of her teachers ahead of district orders “not to do anything, they will take care of it”. At ABC the answer is to put said principal on indefinite administrative leave. This is what happened at Stowers Elementary School last week. The principal is Eileen Blagden.
When District officials were questioned about the administrative leave and if the principal was actually fired, the answer was she is on indefinite leave. Asked why a fifth grade teacher who showed signs of being unstable was transferred from Leal Middle School to a kindergarten class at Stowers, District officials said they couldn’t comment because it was a personnel matter.##M:[more]##
However, LCCN has learned the teacher, who is tenured and has been with ABC for 16 years had problems at Leal and substitute teachers often taught his 5th grade class.
The events that led up to Blagden’s leave occurred on this timeline: According to the sheriff incident report the teacher, Kevin Kirby, arrived at Stowers on Jan. 25 at approximately 9 a.m. He had bloodstains on his clothes and told a secretary he had been in an accident on the freeway while on his motorcycle. Blagden, justifiably so, decided Kirby should not report to his classroom due to his appearance and possible injuries.
Kirby told her that he had refused medical treatment at the scene of the accident and didn’t need a doctor.
According to the report, Kirby became very agitated that he was not able to go to his classroom and said, “Nobody likes me here. Nobody loves me here. I have no friends and maybe my accident happened this morning for a purpose. I wish I was dead!”
Blagden became concerned at what the teacher was saying. Kirby subsequently told Blagden he was having major problems with his “teammates” [other Kindergarten teachers]. He said he “hates” them both and added, “I wish something bad would happen to them! I want to hire a hit man and kill them!” The sheriff’s report stated he then looked into the principal’s eyes and asked her, “Are you afraid of me Eileen?”
At that point Blagden excused herself andhurriedly left the room. She immediately called the District’s Human Resources Department as she thought Kirby was suicidal and needed medical attention for his injuries. A short time later, personnel from the District office arrived and escorted him to a medical facility.
In conversation with the District, the principal was told not to do anything else and that the District would handle it from there.
However, apparently concerned about the safety of her teachers and kindergarten students, Blagden filed a report with the sheriff.
At a subsequent meeting, the two “teammate” teachers told the sheriff investigator the only problem they have had with Kirby was that he was not professional and very accusatory. They added they haven’t known him very long as he was recently transferred to their school from Leal Elementary School from unknown reasons.
Following the events, District officials told LLCN Kirby was placed on leave for medical reasons and would not be returning to class the rest of the year. Both teachers were advised by the sheriff investigator of their options of obtaining a restraining order, which they said they would do so later this week.
At the ABC School Board meeting on Feb. 2, the Board met in closed session before and after the meeting to discuss the incident. The next day Blagden was told to report to the District office where she was put on “indefinite leave” for disobeying orders not to say anything about the incident. She was also told to clean out her office of personal effects and not to talk to any of the school staff.