WKYC Exclusive: Teacher who posed as combat veteran threatened to shoot special ed student

AKRON -- An Akron teacher who masqueraded as a combat veteran once threatened to bring a shotgun to school and shoot a special education student who was making too much noise, according to his teaching file.

Benjamin Terril has been suspended from the Akron Public Schools following his arrest on Sept. 1.

Akron Police found dozens of weapons, some believed to be illegal, along with hand grenades and drugs inside Terril's home, police said.

Channel 3's Eric Mansfield checked Terril's teaching file, which included Terril's claims that he served in the Army's elite 82nd Airborne Division and was wounded during Desert Storm. A formal request for Terril's military file resulted in the government denying that Terril ever served a day in uniform. Terril had no comment when asked about the phony claims of military service.

Also in Terril's file was a reprimand he received in 1999 for threatening to bring a shotgun to Buchtel High School to shoot a special education student who was making too much noise.

Several teachers overheard Terril make the statement; they felt it was serious enough to report to the principal. Terril, a science teacher, filed a two-page response in which he admitted making the statement but claimed it was off-the-cuff and not meant to be taken literally. Terril's 1996 resume is littered with inconsistencies that should have been caught before he was hired.

Beyond forging a military background ,which Akron Schools never validated, Terril also claimed he worked as range officer for Broward County, FL, from 1992-94. Eric Mansfield checked with authorities there who have no record of Terril ever being employed but they do have a record of his arrest and conviction for Carrying a Concealed Weapon.

Terril's hid that felony conviction from his 1996 job application in Akron claiming instead that he had never been convicted of anything beyond a minor traffic misdemeanor.

"How did that get past us?" said Akron Superintendent David James. "And how did that get past the Ohio Dept. of Education because he was issued a teaching license prior to working here."

James, who became Superintendent Aug. 1, said staffers who hired Terril in 1996 didn't do enough "due diligence" in verifying his work and criminal history. He said Terril's ability to manipulate the system was a "cause for concern."

New, mandatory FBI background checks, which include fingerprinting, are providing a much better picture of employees' pasts, James said. Terril was due to have an updated background check in September of 2009, which is when his teaching license would have been up for renewal. A school spokeswoman said the district expects that Terril's prior criminal history would have come out then had he not been arrested a few weeks ago.

Hear what Akron School leaders have to say about the mistakes made in hiring Terril for the classroom tonight on Channel 3 News at 6.