Days before attack, slain Tyler teacher worried about student
A Tyler teacher, who was the victim of a fatal stabbing in his classroom, called a friend days before the attack saying he feared that the teenager who is now being held in his death was capable of killing.
Special education teacher Todd Henry, 50, had told his friend, Mitch Shamburger, a Smith County justice of the peace, during a chilling phone call that he was concerned about a “Katrina kid” — so named because he had survived Hurricane Katrina.
“This kid — he’s got serious problems,” Henry told Shamburger. “If somebody doesn’t do something, soon, this kid is going to kill somebody.”
Shamburger recalls advising his friend to document his concerns and alert his bosses. Henry said he already had.
Henry died a few days later on Sept. 23 after he was stabbed in the heart in a classroom at John Tyler High School.
Authorities are holding one of his students for the murder. A Texas Education Agency spokesman says it was the first teacher slaying in a Texas classroom that anyone in the agency can recall.
The 16-year-old suspect had a history of mental illness and had been accused of other violent acts, The Dallas Morning News reported Sunday.
Smith County prosecutors are considering whether to try the youth as an adult.
The youth’s mother described Henry as a caring teacher, and said her son regretted everything. “He said, ‘Mom, just tell everybody that I’m sorry.’”
Texas should force these animals back to New Orleans and let them deal with their own trash.