Suspended teacher carried out of Moses Lake High after "initiating a riot"

MOSES LAKE, Wash. -- A teacher who has been suspended since January, apparently for a derogatory crack about a Mormon-run university, was carried out of Moses Lake High School after "initiating a riot," officials said.

Four school personnel carried Samson "Sam" Lyman, a science teacher, out of the building by his arms and legs Wednesday after he burst through the cafeteria doors and began yelling that he had been treated unfairly, peppering his language with obscenities, Principal Dave Balcom said.

"When (school officials) approached him, he jumped on a chair and started initiating a riot in our school commons," Principal Dave Balcom said. "Unfortunately it led to us having to remove him."

Outside the building Lyman was met by a police officer who escorted him off campus. Prosecutors will decide whether to charge him with second-degree criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct, police Capt. James Jenkins said.

"We had to keep our school safe," Balcom said.

In an interview Lyman said he was not arrested but added, "I was barred from every school building in the district."

Lyman later returned to the public sidewalk outside the school and resumed a sign-carrying protest he began days earlier, complaining that school district officials in this Eastern Washington town of nearly 17,000 never provided a written explanation for his suspension.

Balcom and School Superintendent Steven Chestnut confirmed that Lyman was on paid administrative leave. "Beyond that, it's a personnel matter and I really can't comment," Chestnut said.

Balcom said he called an emergency staff meeting immediately after Lyman was evicted to provide some details on the administrative action against the teacher, who started work at the high school in September, and to discuss how to deal with students in the matter.

"I'm hurt, I'm mad, I'm all that," Balcom said.

"I feel bad for the kids, they had to experience that," he said. "This should not happen in a public school."

In an article published in the local newspaper, the Columbia Basin Herald, the same day as the eviction, Lyman said he was suspended Jan. 30 following student complaints, at least some about a remark he said made about Brigham Young University, school he attended which is run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint.s

"I told a joke about BYU. I called them Breed 'em Young University," he said. "I acknowledge I said that. I didn't say it to be offensive to the Mormon faith ... I sure do (regret it). I've never been out to hurt anybody's feelings."

Lyman said 79 of students were interviewed over a three-day period in which the number of complaints grew from four to 24 and then was reduced to only a few.

"I think it's a form of religious discrimination against me as an ex-Mormon," he said . "I feel I've been tried and convicted in this community. I will never know who made these false comments."

Lyman said he also was accused of and denied participating in an inappropriate sexual conversation, an incident involving a condom and making fun at a student, insisting that he had plenty of student support.

"I've had 52 students today come up to me and tell me I'm the best science teacher they've ever had," Lyman said.