A Brooklyn teacher inappropriately had two of her young students
kiss in class - fostering a relationship that unwittingly helped solve a
shooting and likely will cost the instructor her job, authorities said
yesterday.
Lisa Schmude, 30, a social studies teacher at Intermediate School 259,
allegedly set up a boy and girl and encouraged them to smooch in her classroom,
according to a report by special schools investigator Richard Condon.
The 14-year-old boy later bragged to the girl about shooting another kid two
years earlier - and the female student feared the victim was her own brother.
Acting on her hunch, the girl showed her brother a photo of the boy she
kissed and her brother identified him as the shooter, authorities said.
When the girl asked Schmude how to handle the situation, the teacher
allegedly said, "Whatever you do, leave me out of it."
The 14-year-old boy, whose name was not released because he is a minor, was
arrested on attempted murder and robbery charges. He was convicted of robbery
last April and is serving up to 10 years at a juvenile facility.
Schmude allegedly began her bizarre matchmaking in 2003, when she learned the
girl had a crush on the boy. The Dyker Heights teacher even pulled the girl out
of another class and took the student to a classroom, where she urged her and
the 14-year-old to kiss, investigators said.
Schmude continued an overly chummy relationship with the female student,
hiring her to type her master's thesis and visiting her home. Schmude called the
girl last year and asked her to meet with the boy again, telling her, "Don't
wimp out," authorities said.
The girl agreed and it was then that the boy boasted about the shooting,
authorities said.
The teacher's behavior surfaced last spring when she testified at the
criminal trial of the shooter. City school officials are now pushing to fire
Schmude, who has been reassigned to administrative tasks.
With Kerry Burke