GILROY
– A Gilroy High School teacher was cleared of aiding students in
watching the videotaped beheading of American businessman Nick
Berg.
GILROY – A Gilroy High School teacher was cleared of aiding students in watching the videotaped beheading of American businessman Nick Berg.
Principal Bob Bravo said Margaret Ota did not help students find the Web site where the video was posted. Some students did watch the video in class.
“We didn’t find in our interviews with students an indication that (Ota) helped them,” Bravo said. “Students did this on their own.”
Some students, interviewed by The Dispatch last week, said Ota did aid a group of students in getting to the Web site. They did not know the extent of her help, but said she appeared to be involved in accessing the video.
”Those were students who did not know what was (happening) on the other side of the classroom,” said Mark Rose, president of the Gilroy Federation of Teachers, earlier this week.
Bravo could not say whether or not Ota, a 12-year GHS veteran, was aware that about 10 students in her senior Advanced Placement English class were watching the video during class time, although she knew they were discussing it.
“I don’t think she was necessarily aware past that,” he said.
Rose took issue with a news story aired on May 17 on KSBW, an NBC affiliate in Salinas, because it quoted several students who said Ota facilitated their viewing of the beheading. The station broadcast a later story indicating that Ota did not hsoe the video.
An investigation of another incident where students watched the video in class continues, Bravo said. There have been no other complaints of students seeing the killing.
Lori Stuenkel covers education for The Dispatch. She can be reached at 842-6400 x277 or ls*******@************ch.com.
