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Next step: Keeping Shaler schools job

Friday, March 14, 2003

By Mike Bucsko, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

A misdemeanor gun charge was dropped yesterday against a Shaler Area High School teacher accused of taking a weapon to school.

Shaler District Justice Robert P. Dzvonick cited the "human factor" in the interpretation of state laws when he dismissed the charge of possession of a weapon on school property filed against Anthony Sarkis, 34, on March 4.

Sarkis' attorney, Joseph Yablonsky, successfully argued that Sarkis did not have the intent under state law to possess the gun on school property because he did not know it was in the backpack when he took it to school. Witnesses, including the teacher who found the backpack and Shaler police officer Michael Heinl, supported that argument, Yablonsky told Dzvonick.

Assistant District Attorney Joseph Horowitz disagreed and said Sarkis should be held for trial in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.

"The Legislature was clear in this. ... They don't want guns on school property," Horowitz said.

"Just because the Legislature writes a law doesn't mean it's perfect," Dzvonick countered.

The gun did not pose a danger to teachers or students, since it was confined to a teachers' work area in a closed backpack, Dzvonick said. But he chastised Sarkis for bringing the gun to school anyway.

"You did a very stupid thing," he said.

A contrite Sarkis, who attended the hearing with his mother and sister, apologized afterward.

"I just want everyone to know how sorry I am about this," he said.

Dzvonick ordered Sarkis to surrender his gun permit.

Sarkis now must fight to keep his teaching job.

Superintendent Donald A. Lee has recommended that Sarkis be fired. The school board Wednesday night unanimously approved a nonbinding motion to support that recommendation. The board will take a formal vote Wednesday.

The matter will end up before an arbitrator by agreement by both sides, Lee said yesterday.

Sarkis, an English teacher since 1996, has been suspended without pay. "It's just a nightmare," Sarkis said after yesterday's hearing.

Shaler police filed the charge against Sarkis 10 days after a teacher at the high school found a .380-caliber handgun registered to Sarkis inside a backpack in an area of the school reserved for teachers.

Sarkis had placed the gun in the backpack for target shooting on Feb. 22, but he never made it to the firing range and forgot the weapon was inside the pack, he said. Two days later, he put some books in the backpack and took it to school without consideration of the handgun inside.

The backpack apparently remained inside a teachers' work area until sociology teacher Linda Dahl looked inside it about 15 minutes after the school day had ended. Dahl testified the backpack was on her desk and she looked inside to find out to whom it belonged. When she saw the gun, Dahl took the backpack to the principal's office.

By the time police were called, Sarkis was at home and had not realized he left the backpack at school, according to yesterday's testimony.