Teacher Smackdown

While this is a crazy story, I would prefer more of these tales rather than stories about teachers sexually molesting kids or bringing guns to school.

In Hillsboro, Oregon, Elizabeth Lucinda Logan, 42, a former teacher at Jackson Elementary school, was charged with first-degree theft by selling, second-degree theft and computer crime after she was accused of stealing a student’s coat and trying to sell it on eBay.

(Geez, they must not pay teachers much in Oregon if they are stealing items and putting them up on online auctions.)

According to the police report a third-grade girl left her $114 navy blue Columbia Sportswear Tectonite ski jacket on the playground during recess. She said it was gone when she went back to find it. Later the girl and her mom looked in lost-and-found bin and posted fliers around school about the missing coat. A week later, the mom saw the coat listed for sale on eBay and went to school authorities.

The school called police. Logan was then put on paid administrative leave. Eventually she resigned her teaching position.

During her trial, Logan testified that Hillsboro police Detective Kari Skinner threatened to arrest and parade her in handcuffs past her students if she did not ‘fess up. Logan told the judge that she felt “mentally raped” by the detective and “mortified” that her students could see into the office while she was interviewed by police. Thus intimidated, Logan said she was coerced into confessing that she took the coat. She then testified that she had found the coat at Goodwill.

(In other news reports of the trial, Logan’s said that she took a similar coat home months before the student reported it missing. She said it was common practice for school staff to take home unclaimed items before the janitor tossed them.)

Logan’s defense attorney said Logan continues to have flashbacks because she was terrorized by police. She is now taking two antidepressants and goes to therapy weekly.

Oh lawd, what a drama queen! Maybe she is depressed because she ruined her 20 year teaching career for stealing a coat from a kid. I would be depressed too if I realized what a low life liar and thief I was.

The detective and the principal both testified that the blinds were closed on the office window so no kids could watch. They also told the judge that the interview only lasted 45 minutes, not the nearly three hours Logan claims the “interrogation” took. The detective also told the prosecutor that she did not threaten or make any promises to Logan. She said Logan willingly wrote her confession.

I look forward to learning the verdict. Needless to say I think Logan’s going to get a very public Teacher Smackdown.