According to Terrence Madden, the student’s attorney, the incident started when Forde pulled the 16-year-old student out of class and asked him if he was gay after he saw the boy dancing inappropriately with another male student in class. The next day, the teacher threatened the student in an algebra class.
?The teacher threatened to hit him in his ?f-ing mouth,?? Madden said. A few days later, Forde asked another student to ?put a hit? on the teenager, according to a police report. “The suspect advised to the witness that he would pay him to kill the victim,” The teacher wrote the victim’s name on a note and showed it to another student on the school bus, the report says.
“A child?s sexuality is never a teacher?s business,” said Marcia Killebrew, the student’s mother. “I feel like the man was being extremely inappropriate. I have no idea why that teacher would want to hurt my son,” Killebrew said. “But all it came after the teachers asked my son if he was gay. For the teacher to ask that, he had to have a motive. That?s not a random question.”
Forde told police he “had no interaction with the witness or the victim, and he never made a statement regarding the victim,” according to the report. Forde’s attorney, Borquaye Thomas, said the 16-year-old only complained after he got in trouble for another incident.
“The allegation is he made a hit on him, but that was not what was said nor what was intended,” Thomas said. “The student only complained after he was getting suspended.” Forde did admit to asking the student about being gay after he saw him dancing with another male student in class, Thomas said.
“All of the students knew Mr. Forde was joking,” Thomas said. “The other students said Mr. Forde always plays around with them like that.”
The student’s mother contacted Clayton County police, who presented the allegations to a magistrate judge, who issued an arrest warrant on Oct. 13, according to court records. Forde was arrested and charged but has since been released from jail. He was ordered to stay away from the student.
Killebrew, the student’s mother, said she took her son out of school for seven days but she allowed him to returned to class following the teacher’s arrest.
“He?s really scared. He?s at the point where he trusted the authorities at school and now he is real untrusting,” she said.
After the arrest, Forde waived a preliminary hearing and is waiting for the case to be sent to a grand jury. He was released on $10,000 bond.
Forde has been teaching in Clayton since August 2008 and the school system placed him on administrative leave with pay. He will remain on administrative leave while school officials conduct an investigation.
If you recall, Clayton County is the same school system where the two teachers got to fighting in front of students over that Facebook Love Triangle. I pray for the students in that county. There’s obviously some issues with the teachers down there.
(Source)
