The Cobb County School Board Thursday voted to fire a Campbell High School teacher who was charged with making terroristic threats for a comment she made to a fourth-grade teacher.
Math teacher Toshuaa Tymille Baker made the comment during a meeting she had in March with her son’s teacher. In a meeting about her son’s school performance, Baker told the teacher that if her son wasn’t allowed to skip the fourth grade, “I’m going to blow up the school.”
Baker was later charged with one count of felony terroristic threats for the comment. Board members Thursday voted unanimously to terminate Baker’s teaching contract.
Board members Brad Wheeler and David Morgan abstained from the decision. Morgan told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he abstained because of a personal relationship he has with Baker. The school board member said he attends the same church as Baker and has worked on volunteer projects with her.
“I didn’t want to create any level of conflicts of interest,” he said.
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Wheeler, a retired Cobb County educator, said he abstained from the decision because Baker was a former student of his while he taught at Pebblebrook High School and “I knew her fairly well.”
“I felt like that was the right thing in this situation to do,” he said.
The Cobb County School District in May opted not to renew Baker’s contract, and she appealed the decision to a three-person tribunal panel. The panel recommended Baker be fired.
Jail records show Baker, a Smyrna resident, was booked into the Cobb County jail March 25 and released the same day on a $5,000 bond. A search of Cobb County Superior Court records shows no court date has been scheduled for Baker.
Kamau Mason, the attorney who represented Baker at her tribunal hearing, declined to offer a statement about the board’s decision. A Cobb school district spokeswoman said state law allows Baker to appeal her firing to the state Board of Education.
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