A southwest suburban Chicago teacher’s no-contact order against a student who she says threatened her life on social media was denied Friday.
Lacking an attorney, Plainfield Central High School teacher Nickey Walker was unable to show the student’s Twitter posts in court due to not being able to prove the account belongs to the student.
The student’s attorney said there is no way to prove he wrote the tweets and that “social media complicates things and is sometimes misunderstood.”
Walker is disappointed in the judge’s denial of the protective order, still fears for her life and thinks “this has disrupted and continues to disrupt the educational process.”
Walker said she's had few problems with students in her nearly two decades of teaching at Plainfield Central High School, but some messages on Twitter recently left her in "shock," she said.
"A federal agency intercepted a Twitter death threat," she explained to NBC Chicago on Wednesday, and she quoted the message: "'If I don't get 23 out of 30 on this log, I'm going to stab Mrs. Walker.'"
Later, she was made aware of another tweet containing a link to a video of a man angrily busting through a door. The tweet said the video described the way students felt leaving Walker's class.
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A union representative says the school board should have supported Walker and she never should have gone to court in the first place. However, both Walker and the union agree with the superintendent’s actions despite being critical of the school board.
Walker says the student allegedly behind the messages was initially suspended for 10 days and that while school administrators recommended the student be put in special placement at Plainfield Academy, the school board overturned that transfer recommendation after the suspension period.
"Adolescents often say and do things that are ill advised," said Tom Hernandez, the director of communications for Plainfield Community Consolidated School District. "The changing technological world including social media can amplify their 'adolescent' behavior."
Hernandez declined to discuss student discipline, citing legal issues, but said the school "thoroughly investigates alleged student threats against teachers" using what he called a "threat assessment protocol."
He said school officials see a "fair number of these kinds of situations," but noted "a very rare few prove to be valid."
Hernandez stressed that while the student is back at school, he or she is not in Walker's class.
That separation was of little solace for Walker.
"Teenagers and adults alike need to recognize that there's a limit to what can be posted on social media," she said. "Death threats are serious once they've been put in print."
