THURMONT, Maryland (AP):
A TEACHER charged with stalking students and threatening to blow up her school said the real perpetrator may be someone who was jealous of the attention showered on a Little League All-Star baseball team.
Michelle L. Dohm, 40, is accused of writing a series of notes in the fall, including one that read, 'Tick-tock, tick-tock, is it a bomb, or is it a clock?' Prosecutors say some of the notes were written on Dohm's school computer, but she says the computer was easily accessible to others.
The messages targeted four seventh-grade boys, about ages 12-13, who were members of the Thurmont team that won the 2005 state Little League championship, police said. One note referred to two players' jersey numbers.
Dohm said emotions ran high in the town of 6,000 as players were selected for the All-Star team.
"It was a very big deal for the town this summer," she told The Associated Press in an interview on Wednesday.
Dohm and defence attorney Thomas C. Morrow say they believe the note's author was a disgruntled parent, or possibly a child.
JUVENILE PRANK
"The truth may ultimately find that it was not so much a conspiracy to get Michelle as just a rather juvenile prank that got out of hand," Morrow said.
Dohm is on unpaid leave from her job as a social studies teacher at Thurmont Middle School. She is accused of leaving or delivering threatening notes on at least five occasions from September 28 through November 21. The last note, found in the boys' bathroom a week after she was suspended, prompted an evacuation of the school.
She said the school is easily accessible to the public, and she often forgets to log off her computer.
Last week, a grand jury indictment charged Dohm with nine felony counts of threatening to explode a destructive device and two misdemeanour counts of stalking. She said the charges, which carry a maximum 100 years in prison and US$100,000 in fines, have shaken her family.
"My life was just boring and fine," she said. "I didn't ask for any of this to fall into my lap."
A hearing is scheduled for January 23.
