BEDFORD, N.Y. — A Fox Lane High School English teacher who allegedly wrote in online conversations with a “medium” that the government was behind the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and that he wanted to “kill people” is suing the district for firing him.
The Bedford school district fired Adam Heller, 35, after a disciplinary hearing on charges brought by schools Superintendent Jere Hochman that he suffered from “mental illness.”
“Due to an apparent mental illness, it would create an undue risk to the safety of the students and faculty of the Bedford Central School District if you were permitted to return to your duties,” wrote Hochman.
According to court documents, Heller, a Pound Ridge, New York resident, acquired a Russian military rifle on Dec. 14, 2012, the day Adam Lanza gunned down 20 elementary school children and six adults at the Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Connecticut.
That same month, Heller began having online conversations with Georgia O’Connor, described in court documents as a “medium,” about government conspiracies.
During these conversations, Heller expressed “concerns about government power and corruption, including the potential use by the government of technology to effect weather patterns and nationwide conspiracies,” according to court documents.
Their instant messaging occurred in the context of playing “Words with Friends,” an online Scrabble game that has a private messaging feature.
A couple of weeks after Newtown, and the purchase of the first of his two guns, Heller received a .22 caliber rifle from a friend. Concerned about Heller’s well-being, O’Connor reportedly contacted the FBI, who in turn contacted Bedford Police Chief William Hayes.
Hayes reached out to Pound Ridge Police Chief David Ryan and alerted Hochman.
Heller joined the district in 2003 and earned $97,391 in 2012-13 according to records. Before Fox Lane, Heller taught English at Harry S. Truman High School in New York City for two years.
Bedford and Pound Ridge police monitored Heller’s online communications and activities and kept “a vigilance at the high school where he taught,” according to court filings.
On Jan. 18, 2013, police followed Heller after school to Precision Armory, a gun store in Carmel, where he looked into buying a .22 caliber rifle with a removable barrel. On his way back, police pulled him over, and asked to go to his house to talk.
According to Heller’s suit, there were about eight law enforcement officers already there. After questioning, Heller was taken to Westchester Medical Center’s Behavioral Health Unit, where it was determined that he had a “fast pulse” and taken to the emergency room.
On Jan. 23, 2013, Heller was transferred to the Behavior Health Unit, where he was “involuntarily committed and, over the course of a week, seen by many doctors,” according to the petition filed by Heller’s lawyer, Michael Sussman. Heller was ultimately discharged with a clearance letter saying he “could return to work on Feb. 11,” and he contacted Hochman with the news.
Hochman asked Heller to undergo psychiatric evaluation.
Heller met with Dr. Alexander Lerman twice in April, after which Hochman brought Heller up on disciplinary charges in June 2013. Hochman said in the charges that Heller made intentionally false statements during Lerman’s evaluation.
“Dr. Lerman was unable to conclude whether Mr. Heller presents a risk to others because Mr. Heller failed to cooperate with the evaluation and thus it must be assumed that Mr. Heller presents such a risk,” the charges said. “Mr. Heller expressed in an internet communication that he believed the U.S. government programmed the Newtown school shooter, which indicates that he might feel compelled to commit a similar act.”
On May 12, the hearing officer agreed with all of the charges and terminated Heller’s employment.
Heller is disputing the claim that he was uncooperative with Lerman or that he suffers from any serious mental illness.
“The decision is arbitrary and capricious, and lacks evidentiary support and violates due process,” his petition alleges.
Hochman declined comment, citing the litigation.
Teacher fired after Newtown IM rants sues schools
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