Abby Cavenaugh
Editor
Charlotte attorney Josh Van Kampen is building his case to help clear Anson County ESL teacher Patricia Frost of charges of assault.
Frost is accused of assaulting 18-year-old Anson High School senior Johnathan Smith in June. Smith told Charlotte news station WSOC-TV that Frost told him to pull up his baggy shorts and then followed him around the parking lot. According to Smith, the two exchanged words and she slapped him. Van Kampen says Frost slapped Smith in self-defense, after he slapped her first.
Both Frost and Smith have filed assault charges against each other.
Van Kampen has started a Facebook campaign to help support Frost and try to get her job back. She has been on administrative leave from Anson County Schools since the incident. She teaches English as a second language at Anson County Schools.
Before becoming an educator, Frost served for 24 years in the U.S. Army.
“Patricia Frost is a 24-year combat veteran,” Van Kampen said. “After she retired as a master command sergeant, she immediately went to work as an ESL teacher. She had an excellent record up until this incident, where she claims she acted in self-defense.”
Van Kampen’s firm has also started an online petition, titled “Superintendent Gregory A. Firn & Anson County Schools: Protect the Right to Self-Defense by Reinstating Patricia Frost as Teacher.” The petition had 307 signatures as of late Monday afternoon. To sign the petition, visit www.change.org/petitions/superintendent-gregory-a-firn-anson-county-schools-protect-the-right-to-self-defense-by-reinstating-patricia-frost-as-teacher, or “like” the Facebook page, “Support Pat Frost.”
Frost and Van Kampen met with Anson County Schools Superintendent Dr. Greg Firn on Tuesday, and now await his decision on whether or not Frost can return to her job. Van Kampen said that Frost was questioned for more than an hour about what happened with Smith, and that Firn’s attorney denied his request to watch the surveillance video and allow Frost to narrate what had happened during the incident.
“I guess it’s easier to suspend and terminate a teacher in that situation than to justify retaining the teacher to the student’s parents,” Van Kampen said. “It appears the only way for a teacher to avoid suspension or termination when a student turns violent toward them is to allow themselves to be a punching bag until help arrives. Our teachers need to be able to defend themselves when they’re assaulted by students; we owe them at least that much.”
He added that if the school system moves forward with Frost’s dismissal, he will appeal the decision.
Let's ask this question. Where would the outrage be if a student had attacked Dr. Firn's mother? Would he have been satisfied seeing her succumb to the attacker because he was a student? Seeing her kicked in the head while she was lying on the ground? Pat Frost defended herself because she could.
She was a Command Sergeant Major in the US Army. The highest rank a soldier who has come up through the ranks can attain. Don't mistake the armed forces of today like they have been portrayed in the movies, Pat Frost did not reach her rank and position of heavy responsibility by beating up privates and busting beer bottles over soldiers heads. That is a myth. She achieved her position by enforcing laws, regulations, and standards, just as we demand as Americans of our armed forces.
So when I see some accusation that she slapped some teenager because he wouldn't pull up his pants (only takes one child to be killed by what can be hidden there), I am both amused and extremely skeptical. She was the teacher, she was in charge, again, I would go back to Dr. Firn, how would you like your mother being called a f***in' ho' and slapped?
I could go on and on. I've known Pat Frost for years. She was absolutely dedicated to the ESL program, many times spending her own money on the disadvantaged children. I would tell you, when we served together, there was many a time when she asked me to be present in her office when she confronted a Soldier with a disciplinary problem, to prevent situations like this from occurring, false accusations, the accused, always guilty, always the one being wronged. Pat Frost never laid a hand on any of them. She didn't have to, she was in charge.
So, to believe an 18 year old student, willing to call a teacher a fucking ho, and defy the most modest of disciplinary standards, and slap and assault her, as the one who was wronged in this situation is ludicrous.
Dave Baker, Fort Bragg, NC