Teacher admonished for telling student to 'go shoot himself'

A sixth-grade teacher has been “admonished” for telling a student to “go shoot himself,” said Lawton Community Schools Superintendent Joseph Trimboli. “In December, we had a teacher get frustrated. She tried calming the class down, but they weren’t responding,” he said. “She said she felt like swearing and in an attempt to grasp for words she said something inappropriate.” The teacher, Mary Botas, who has 32 years of experience, apologized to the class the next day and was disciplined by the middle-school principal, said Trimboli.

Trimboli said the parents of the student who the teacher told to “go shoot himself” came to him two weeks later with a letter requesting she be fired. He told them he could remove their child from the teacher’s class, but that response didn’t satisfy the parents, the superintendent said. Trimboli said he told the parents he would distribute their letter to the school board, and after the father contacted him again, told them they could address the school board at its next meeting.


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“I saw the parents in the hallway before the meeting but they left before the open forum. I called the father the next day and he said they left because he had a stomach ache,” the superintendent said. “I thought her punishment was fair,” Trimboli said of the disciplinary action taken against the teacher.

“She has 32 years of experience without a single reprimand, it wasn’t pre-meditated, she knew it was wrong and she tried to make it right,” he said. “At the same time, I can understand a parent wanting to stand up for their flesh and blood.” Trimboli said the school district and teacher want to move on. “The teacher feels the relationship between her and the student has actually improved since the incident,” he said.