When Susan L. Burke grabbed her students, was she breaking up fights and engaging in role-playing exercises, or was she intentionally choking the first-graders to punish them?
That’s the question a Montgomery County Circuit Court jury will decide in the case of the former Greencastle Elementary School teacher facing trial on assault charges.
On the witness stand Thursday, Burke, 36, testified that she would grab students by the shoulders to pull them away from physical altercations with other students, but didn’t use choking as a means of discipline.
Burke also testified that she participated in role-playing exercises to demonstrate what inappropriate behavior was. While students were standing in line, she said, some would playfully wrap their arms around children in front of them and try to lift the students up.
Burke said she would wrap her arms around a student’s upper body to show the children what they shouldn’t do, but she wouldn’t lift the students.
She also described pulling a boy by the shoulders to drag him out of a fight with another boy about professional football teams, and placing her hands on a young girl’s shoulders to redirect the child back to her desk.
Burke said one boy who testified this week “got in trouble frequently” and was the class clown, often falling out of his chair “accidentally-on-purpose.” Burke said she would help pull him back into his seat. When that happened, she said, the boy would sometimes apologize and sometimes complain that she was hurting him.
Several of the students testified earlier this week that Burke choked them when she got upset as a method of discipline.
Under cross-examination, Burke acknowledged that the school’s principal had advised her against touching students and that she likely did put her hands around students’ necks.
“Do you think that your arms were ever around someone’s neck,” prosecutor Ryan Wechsler asked.
“Yes,” Burke said.
Several of Burke’s former colleagues testified for the prosecution Thursday, saying they had doubts about her ability to be truthful.
“People questioned whether things that she said were honest or not,” said Sara Kopf, another first-grade instructor at the Silver Spring school.
Testimony in the trial finished late Thursday afternoon. Closing arguments are slated for Friday morning and the jury will then begin deciding Burke’s fate.
