[Southsider2k12]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...ArticleID=13111

Principal's Home Struck By 9 Bullets
His office window at Michigan City High School had been damaged by gunfire in January; incidents lead to heightened security at school

Jason Miller
The News-Dispatch

LA PORTE - Someone sprayed bullets into the home of Michigan City High School Principal Mark Francesconi. No one was home at the time.

According to a La Porte County sheriff's report, someone shot nine bullets into Francesconi's rural La Porte home last week. It happened three months after someone shot bullets into Francesconi's office at the high school.

Deputies said they don't have a suspect and are investigating the shooting. Police found nine bullets, six that were shot through windows and three that were shot into the home's brick facade.

On Jan. 28, someone shot bullets into Francesconi's high school office.

La Porte County Sheriff's Maj. Gary Broling said it appears someone drove onto Francesconi's County Road 400 West property and unloaded nine rounds into the home around 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Attempts to contact Francesconi on Monday for comment were unsuccessful, but Michigan City Area Schools spokeswoman Betsy Kohn said Francisconi is "trying to focus on the business of running the school."

"He's asked that we respect his privacy, at least until the investigation gets further along," Kohn added. "No one in the family was home (at the time) and we're thankful for that."

Kohn said security at the high school has been heightened during the investigation and said police are on the job.

"They may have some strong leads and they're following up on those leads," she said. "They're being vigilant."

Broling said Francesconi's daughter found the bullets. He believes no one was home at the time of the shooting.

Police found several spent .40 caliber rounds outside the home and several bullet pieces inside.

Broling said three detective sergeants are investigating the incident.



Contact Jason Miller at jmiller@thenewsdispatch.com.

[ChickenCityRoller]

This is messed up to say the least. "Waaaaaaaaa I'm an idiot and got kicked out of school. Waaaaaaaa I'm gonna shoot up the principals house." Unbelievable.

[Ang]

Who's to say it's a student? It could be some crazy parent, too. Maybe someone whose daughter didn't get to play basketball, someone whose son was kicked out of school, some disgruntled employee. Anyone.

But I agree this is messed up!

[Dave]

The question I'd like answered is, do the bullets from the two incidents appear to have come from the same gun?

[ChickenCityRoller]

My gut feeling is that it's a student.

Without looking it up, I think the bullets at the school were from a .22 and these were from a .40! A .40 is a BIG gun! Crazy anyway you cut it.

[Marram]

Well, the teachers are still working without a contract, there is a very heated public campaign to oust the superintendent, the school system and park department are involved in a dispute, and a popular high school coach was just fired...
Just don't light a match anyone.
Here's to cool heads, thick skins, and good hearts: that they may prevail.

[Ang]

I wonder if there is something symbolic about the number 9? Nine bullets at the school, nine bullets at his home....


Or is that just the number of bullets in a clip? Roger would know. Where the HECK is he?!?

[mcstumper]

Roger would know. Where the HECK is he?!?

I have been thinking the same thing for a while. SS'er, heard from Rog?

[Southsider2k12]

I sent him an email a while back just to check on him. Sounds like mostly he was just busy and angry at the goings on around town lately. Maybe I should drop him another line to tell him that we miss him

[Ang]

I sent him a PM last week. He never replied.

[Southsider2k12]

I sent him a PM last week. He never replied.

He hasn't logged onto the site for a while. I actually sent him an email a while back. He responded to that.

[Ang]

Yeah, but don't you get an email in your inbox telling you that you have a PM here? I do. Or is that just a user setting that can be turned on and off?

[Southsider2k12]

Yeah, but don't you get an email in your inbox telling you that you have a PM here? I do. Or is that just a user setting that can be turned on and off?

You can turn notifications off, if you don't want them.

[Ang]

Humph! He musta done that then. Bummer. I really miss his commentary around here and his ability to incite a great debate!

[Southsider2k12]

FWIW, this story has been picked up by the AP wire and was in newspapers all over the country. I really hope they find whoever did this stupid and risky thing, and make an example out of them. How embarrassing for our town to be portrayed nationally by one idiot like this.

[Roger Kaputnik]

Thank you for the kind words. I would take issue with "incite a great debate." I would say, Settle the great debates (if only anyone would listen)!


At any rate, I do have info that the responsible parties are a couple who have been suspended or dismissed for various nefarious activities. They are not students, but were teachers.

[Ang]

Thank you for the kind words. I would take issue with "incite a great debate." I would say, Settle the great debates (if only anyone would listen)!
At any rate, I do have info that the responsible parties are a couple who have been suspended or dismissed for various nefarious activities. They are not students, but were teachers.

Maybe "incite" was the wrong word (I pondered over that for a while) but I meant it with the utmost respect.

As far as who did it, I guess I was on the right path in thinking it probably wasn't a student. Most of the kids don't know where Mark lives. Not that it wouldn't be hard to find out, but I just wasn't convinced it was a student. When the shooting at the school happened, I'll admit my first thought was student. But not in the sense of an attack against Mark himself. His office is on the corner of the building and so an easy target. When his home was shot my first thought was disgruntled employee.

[JHeath]

...At any rate, I do have info that the responsible parties are a couple who have been suspended or dismissed for various nefarious activities. They are not students, but were teachers.

WIMS had this all over their morning show this morning. Ahead of the game, as usual, Roger.

[JHeath]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...ArticleID=13215

5/9/2008 10:51:00 AM

Paperwork between Michigan City Area Schools and educator John Scheimann, who may lose his job Tuesday during the MCAS School Board meeting. Anthony Lambré illustration/The News-Dispatch

Report: Teacher A Suspect In Gunfire At Student's Home
‘I have never fired a gun at anyone’s house,’ MCHS teacher John Scheimann says.

By Georgette Senter and Dave Hawk
The News-Dispatch

MICHIGAN CITY - A Michigan City man who is a Muslim has sued a Michigan City High School teacher for allegedly calling his daughter a "terrorist" in class.

Hussein M. Mroueh's attorney filed the lawsuit April 2. On April 26, Mroueh reported to police that windows in his house and car were shot out, and that he suspected the teacher.

Authorities are investigating that shooting, as well as similar incidents in which gunshots were fired at Michigan City High School Principal Mark Francesconi's house and office.

Police have not made any arrests in any of the cases, and other than Mroueh's naming of the teacher he suspects, John Scheimann, police said they have no suspects.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


In an interview Thursday at his house on Boyd Circle, Scheimann was asked about Mroueh calling him a suspect in the shooting.

Scheimann laughed, then said, "It wouldn't surprise me."

He also denied he fired the shots.

"I haven't fired a gun at anyone's house," he said.

He went on to discuss Mroueh.

"I've been maligned by him before. He's been after me for four - three years - and I don't get what he wants. He keeps after me."

Scheimann and his wife, Stephanie, spoke to reporters for nearly an hour Thursday afternoon after stepping outside their house. Outside it stands a large U.S. flag and a "No Confidence" in [School Superintendent Michael] Harding sign, similar to ones in other teachers' yards.

Scheimann is in his 19th year of teaching for Michigan City Area Schools.

Asked whether he has a gun, John Scheimann mulled his answer for a moment while Stephanie Scheimann said, "No comment, no comment, no comment." Then John Scheimann said, "I don't want to get into that."

Officials confirmed to The News-Dispatch that Scheimann has a permit to carry a gun.

Regarding the student's allegations about what Scheimann allegedly said about her father, Scheimann several times said that this student and others have twisted his words.

"She made crap up, twisted my words ... school policy, as it is, is to take the kid's word," John Scheimann said, adding teenagers tend to have "selective hearing."

Stephanie Scheimann interjected.

"The student was getting a D in behavior," she said.

John Scheimann continued the thought, saying, "And her academic grade was going down and she stated she would be getting back at me."

Stephanie Scheimann added, "I had her as a student, and her sister, and had no problems with them. Where this came from I have no clue."

She went on: "We have heard teachers do the same thing we were accused of and not a thing is said or done. We've been selectively targeted."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Documents obtained by The News-Dispatch include a written reprimand of John Scheimann for his remarks toward the Muslim student.

The reprimand, from Francesconi, says in part, "In light of our commitment to embracing diversity and cultural sensitivity, it was poor judgment on your behalf that you told a Muslim student that you were watching her father because he is 'suspect' and that you were 'Homeland Security.'

"For the record, I am stating here that you deny having said some of the other comments that you were accused of such as.

"1. 'She probably said Alahu Akbar.'

"2. 'Your dad is counting his money watching Al Jazeera TV.'"

The News-Dispatch, under the state's Access to Public Records Act, obtained copies of Scheimann's personnel file that showed several warnings and suspensions. He is not teaching at this time, and he said he will learn Tuesday whether he will be fired. The school administration has asked the School Board at its meeting Tuesday to cancel his contract.

Meanwhile, Stephanie Scheimann, a teacher at Elston Middle School, was suspended for five days without pay, as of Tuesday. The reason: For "contacting at least one student and his mother regarding the recommendation for termination of your husband's contract ... you have been disciplined in prior years for similar conduct, and therefore are well aware that such behavior will not be tolerated in Michigan City Area Schools."


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The civil lawsuit for slander names as defendants MCAS and Scheimann. It was filed by Michigan City attorney Donald W. Pagos in La Porte Circuit Court on behalf of Mroueh, of the 700 block of Hoyt Street, and his daughter, Rema, who was a freshman when the incidents occurred.

Scheimann was Rema's geography teacher at Michigan City High School and, according to the lawsuit, during the week of April 10, 2006, "Scheimann publicly and repeatedly stated that plaintiff Hussein Mroueh was 'a terrorist,' and that plaintiff Hussein Mroueh was "on a terrorist watch list."

The suit also says Scheimann stated he was employed by the Department of Homeland Security and the department told him Mroueh was "a suspected terrorist."

In his filing, Pagos stated: "Plaintiff Hussein Mroueh is not a terrorist ... is not on a terrorist watch list ... is not suspected by the Department of Homeland Security to be a terrorist," and that Scheimann knew the statements were false when he made them.

Pagos' lawsuit said Scheimann made the statement intentionally "for the purpose of causing harm to plaintiff Hussein Mroueh's reputation and standing in the community."

Michigan City Area Schools was named because the defamatory statements were made in the "scope and course" of Scheimann's employment with the schools, the lawsuit says.

Hussein Mroueh, who is of Arab descent, suffered emotional distress, the lawsuit says, and Rema Mroueh was embarrassed in front of her classmates and suffered emotional distress as well.

No specific dollar damages is listed in the filing.

q

In a police report April 26, Mroueh told the Michigan City Police Department his home and vehicle were the target of a shooting. The report says Mroueh named John Scheimann as a possible suspect in the shooting due to the lawsuit filed against Scheimann.

According to city police, who labeled it a criminal recklessness case, Mroueh reported two house windows shot out along with two windows of his 2004 Cadillac Escalade that was parked along the side of the home. During the initial investigation around 1:30 a.m. that Saturday, police found several small shards of metal, possibly from the bullets shot at the car and house.

Mroueh, home at the time, reported hearing several sounds like gun fire, then it was still, and then more gun fire. It was not until the officers arrived that he knew his car also had been damaged. Damage to the house was listed at $2,000 and at $600 on the car.

Authorities so far have not connected anyone to the shooting at the high school principal's office or home. The office incident occurred over the weekend of Jan. 28, and was discovered by maintenance personnel.

Then on April 30, Francesconi's home in rural La Porte County was the target of a shooting. At least nine shots were fired at the home, according to a La Porte County Sheriff's Department report. No one was home at the time.

Circuit Court Judge Tom Alevizos recused himself from the lawsuit, saying he knows Mroueh, and another judge will be selected.

MCAS Marsha Volk Bugalla, has filed a motion to give the school system an additional 30 days to respond to the complaint.

Scheimann said he hasn't gotten a lawyer to defend himself in Mroueh's suit, saying he feels the school system is handling his defense.

"I'm not doing anything and at this point I don't think I need one (a lawyer)."

[JHeath]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...amp;TM=39699.93

5/9/2008 10:49:00 AM
Longtime Resident No Longer Feels Safe
Businessman says teacher intimidated his daughter; shots fired at his home, vehicle.

Georgette Senter
The News-Dispatch

MICHIGAN CITY - Hussein Mroueh has called Michigan City home for more than 35 years. He began his business career here, and has owned The Grocery Shoppe, 4535 N. Wozniak Road - formerly Chapman's or The Country Store - for five years.

He started his family here, and has always felt that Michigan City and the United States was home.

But now, after having his oldest daughter allegedly intimidated by a teacher and his home shot at, he no longer feels safe.

"I have never had any trouble in my life," Mroueh said. "I married, had children, they have been good children and are good students."

Mroueh recalled the day two years ago that his oldest daughter, then a freshman at Michigan City High School, came home and told her father that a teacher referred to her and her father as "terrorists."

"I could not believe it," Mroueh said. "Never has anyone called me that before."

Mroueh's family came from Lebanon seeking to live a life free from judgments about faith or ethnic ties.

"This is the one country where every citizen has the freedom and right to be what he wants to be," Mroueh said. "That is what makes this country great."

Mroueh knew that after the terrorist acts of Sept. 11, 2001, some people looked differently at Middle Eastern citizens and even more so if they happened to be Muslim. But he never thought a teacher would be the first person to imply he and his daughter were connected to an act of violence.

"I went to the school," the father said. "I wanted to speak with the principal but was not allowed to."

Mroueh said he just wanted to understand why someone would say such things about him and his daughter in front of a classroom of students.

Out of frustration, Mroueh turned to the law, and with attorney Donald Pagos, filed a lawsuit naming Michigan City Area Schools and teacher John Scheimann as defendants.

Since his house was shot at on April 26, Mroueh says he has an even greater fear for the safety of his family and his life in Michigan City.

"I have never had any enemies, and no one has ever threatened me or my family, but now I cannot sleep as I worry that who did this will return and try to shoot us again," Mroueh said.



Contact Georgette Senter at gsenter@thenewsdispatch.com.