Students stage walkout earlier in the day, By JoAnn Baker West Milford Several hundred students and dozens of teachers were among those who showed up at a board of education meeting Tuesday in support of 25-year-old high school social studies teacher Cheryl Bachmann after administrators chose to not renew her contract. That morning, hundreds of students had refused to enter the building in what was supposed to be a peaceful protest. But the situation began to fall apart when four students who were in the building used profanity, taunted the police and began jumping on one another’s shoulders. Those students received three-day suspensions. Meanwhile, the students outside did not acknowledge requests from building administrators, police or the school superintendent to come back inside the building. Finally, at the beginning of third period, Bachmann herself went outside and asked the students to return to class, which they did in an orderly fashion. But then the fire alarm was pulled. Once the building was cleared and reentered, the alarm went off a second time, altogether causing a major disruption for a good portion of the day. Since AP exams were scheduled that day, the disruptions were more serious for some of the students. That evening, at a scheduled board of education workshop, so many supporters showed up that the meeting was moved from the Westbrook library to the gym and a police presence was requested. The recurring theme of students who spoke to the board was that Bachmann maintained a zero-tolerance policy for derogatory and/or demeaning comments about other students. Although she is clearly popular with the majority of the student population, according to several speakers she is particularly special to disenfranchised kids. Many of the speakers linked this trait to an ability to avoid situations like the ones in Columbine and Virginia Tech. In one moving speech a high school boy stood shaking before the board, parents, teachers and students. In a voice choked with emotion he said, “I’m a homosexual. When I hear the word faggot’ shouted I don’t feel safe. I always felt safe in Ms. Bachmann’s class. It is horrifying to me that you would think of firing her. Horrifying.” Another student talked about how Bachmann, who runs both INTERACT and the yearbook, went out of her way make sure everyone felt included. Junior Janet Englehardt presented the board with a petition signed by 342 students. Here’s the issue. Bachmann is completing her third year in the district. At the end of March she received a written recommendation for tenure from her department supervisor, usually assumed to be a sure thing that the teacher’s contract would be renewed (a teacher automatically gets tenured on the first day of his/her fourth year). Within a few days of receiving the recommendation, Bachman had a run-in with a student who called another student “a faggot.” The student got suspended (in-school) and was later overheard by a number of people threatening to kill Bachmann. A few weeks after that another incident with another student using the same word against someone was also referred to the administration for discipline. It was at a meeting set up to discuss this incident that Bachmann received a second letter, this one stating that her administrators were withdrawing their recommendation for tenure. “Due to recent incidents, we have serious concerns about her classroom management and ability to effectively control and tolerate unacceptable behavior,” it read. West Milford Education Association President Mary Ryan Zanotti said, “This one was wrong.” She said that the administrators did not follow proper procedures in notifying Bachmann of their change of heart. Superintendent Glenn Kamp said in a later interview, “We absolutely followed procedure to the letter of the law and I will stand by that.” Confidentiality laws prohibit Kamp from commenting on Bachmann but he did say, “There is more to the story than the part she has made public. This is not something we would decide lightly.” He also said although he was proud of the way the kids behaved at the meeting, he didn’t hear anything he didn’t expect to hear, intimating that nothing had swayed him to change his mind. Sean Cosgrove, a member of the education association who formerly handled grievances for teachers, is handling Bachmann’s case Because the person who does it currently was in Virginia Tech with his daughter when Bachmann’s dismissal meeting took place. Cosgrove said that Bachmann’s “firing” (in fact, it is technically a non-renewal) was retaliatory since Bachmann is actually a whistle blower. His argument is that both state law and district policy back up zero tolerance on abuse, which includes derogatory comments, based on sexual orientation and that the word that started this controversy would fall under that category. Under the law, Bachmann will be able to argue her case before the board in what is known as a Donaldson Hearing. During this hearing, usually done behind closed doors, Bachmann or her representative will try to convince the board to go against the administrators recommendation. Bachmann has requested, as is her right, that her hearing be held in public, with full disclosure. Once the hearing takes place (most likely at the March 22 meeting) the board will have the option of overruling the administrative decision. Several students told the board they disapproved of the business with the fire alarm and asked the board to consider the fact that it wasn’t any of them. Kamp said an investigation to determine who did pull the alarm is underway and the police have some evidence.