Smyrna, DELAWARE

A fine line.

April 8, 2008 - A substitute teacher at Smyrna Middle School, was accused of endangering the welfare of a 12-year-old boy in his class last month. Police charged Saulsbury with with one count each of offensive touching and endangering the welfare of a child.

A school resource officer in the school was called to a classroom for a disorderly student. An investigation determined that the teacher had grabbed the boy, upsetting him. The student had asked to go to the nurse prior to the incident and the teacher would not let him. Smyrna police spokesman Lt. Norman Wood said the teacher allegedly grabbed the student around the neck.
Full Name: Wayne A. Saulsbury
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TT - We often elect not to carry stories about coaches and allegations of physicial abuse because so many turn out to be exaggerations of what actually occurred.

For similar reasons, we often avoid stories that allege classroom violence on the part of teachers because in the overheated aftermath of a confrontation, it most often turns out no serious injury occurred, the case is eventually dropped for lack of intent or evidence of harm and is rarely pursued by prosecutors. A story now and again illustrates the difficulty of separating intentional abuse from confrontation.