Teacher charged with school threats
She has been on leave since messages and other scares shook Warminster's Longstreth Elementary in October.
Childlike but threatening, these messages were scrawled on wall tiles and papers found throughout Longstreth Elementary School in Warminster:
I have wepons and nife.
Your so stuped I have to kill you.
I wont stop til you all die.
Nails were scattered in the faculty parking lot. And on Oct. 18, the threats crested when a fifth grader opened his desk to find a bomblike contraption: a water bottle filled with screws and white powder.
But the strangest development of all came yesterday when police arrested a Longstreth fourth-grade teacher on charges of terrorizing her own school.
Susan Romanyszyn, 45, of Warminster, faces 17 felony counts of terroristic threats, accused of waging a nine-day scarefest in mid-October that left parents, school officials and children sorely rattled.
"This was a woman who was entrusted with teaching students and providing a safe environment," Bucks County District Attorney Michelle Henry said. "Instead, she actually put a great deal of fear into the community."
Romanyszyn has taught for 10 years in the Centennial School District, the last three at Longstreth. She apparently was disgruntled that her request to teach fifth grade had been denied, Henry said.
For nearly a month, students were searched and forbidden to bring backpacks to school. Extracurricular events were canceled or delayed. Students were confined to their classrooms, and told to bring lunches in clear plastic only.
"Students were pulled out of school by their parents, and some have not returned," Warminster Police Chief Michael Murphy said. "Their parents are home-schooling them."
When police arrived to investigate the threats, several teachers told them that Romanyszyn had been acting strangely for two weeks, a probable-cause affidavit said.
Longstreth's principal, Keely Mahan, helped investigators identify Romanyszyn on security surveillance footage taken in areas where the threats were posted. The teacher was placed on administrative leave Oct. 22 and has not returned.
Romanyszyn was released yesterday after posting 10 percent of $1 million bail. Neither she nor her attorney, Sara Webster, could be reached for comment last night.