DILWORTH - A Clay County commissioner is accused in district court of fifth-degree assault for slapping a male student across the face in May during a wood shop class at Dilworth Glyndon Felton High School.
Jerry Waller is still employed as a full-time industrial technology teacher at the school, but a letter of deficiency has been put into his employment file.
Waller, 52, is currently seeking re-election to his County Commission seat and is running unopposed. Charges were filed against Waller last Friday. The Forum was alerted to these charges Thursday, two days after the filing deadline for commissions seats.
Waller referred comment to his attorney Paul Thorwaldsen, of Detroit Lakes, Minn., who said Waller has taught for 17 years without any deficiency problems.
"The entire situation is unfortunate," Thorwaldsen said, declining to comment further.
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The mother of the 16-year-old boy declined to comment. His parents requested that the "deficiency" letter be put in Waller's file, but asked that he not be fired, said Thomas Gravel, the school's former principal.
The letter would have gone into Waller's file without the parents' request, Gravel said.
School Board President Marilyn Labrensz declined to comment other than to confirm Waller's employment with the district.
His teaching license expires June 30, 2012, according to the Minnesota Department of Education.
Waller is also being investigated by the state Education Department regarding the May 27 incident, according to Clay County District Court documents.
Those documents state:
A 16-year-old student, who is not identified in the police report, told authorities Waller was joking around with a student and was accidentally hit in the lip with a pen or a pencil. Waller became upset and several students began to laugh.
The boy said Waller then turned to him and asked "Do you think that's (expletive deleted), funny?"
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The boy responded, "Well, yeah kind of" and Waller slapped him on the face with an open hand.
The boy told investigators the slap hurt and "was hard enough to cause him to turn his head."
The boy's parent's confronted Waller, who initially said nothing happened.
The parents asked again, and told police Waller then said, "I guess I kind of took my anger out on your child."
When interviewed by police, Waller said a student made a derogatory comment about women and he reacted to that comment, not the students laughing at him or his lip being hit.
Waller also said he does not have a habit of slapping kids and thinks maybe "subconsciously he was defending himself," the police report reads.
The boy's parents were named in the police report. The Forum chose not to identify the parents in this story because doing so could help identify the child.
Gravel called Waller a good teacher and said the school has not had any problems with him in the past.
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"Obviously if there was something else we would have had a different outcome," he said.
Waller, of Glyndon, has been on the County Commission since 1997. Fellow Commissioners, Ben Brunsvold and Kevin Campbell both said Thursday they were not aware of the accusations against Waller.
"All I can say is I am sorry to hear that any such thing is pending," Brunsvold said.
Waller's first appearance on the misdemeanor is set for July 28. A special prosecutor from Grant County has been appointed to the case because Waller is an elected county official.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Brittany Lawonn at (701) 241-5541
