NEW YORK, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- An award-winning teacher, arrested and fired after making an alleged "terroristic threat" in a teachers lounge, is suing the New York Police Department.
Sabrina Milo's federal lawsuit contends she was only joking and letting off steam to fellow teachers at Fort Hamilton High School in Brooklyn in 2011, the New York Post reported Wednesday.
"If I had a trench coat and a shotgun, it'd be Columbine all over again," she said, feeling administrators had not supported her when she had a confrontation with a student.
A few days later, after word of her reference to the 1999 Colorado high school massacre spread, Milo, who was honored in 2007 for her work in the classroom, was arrested at the school for making a "terroristic threat." She spent four days in jail before being released on bail. But a grand jury refused to indict her.
"They arrested an art instructor who teaches children for terrorism for venting to colleagues in a teacher's lounge," Milo's lawyer, Daniel Neveloff, told the Post. "They had no probable cause to arrest her -- they acted too quickly and recklessly."
Milo is seeking $6 million in damages from the New York Police Department and Greg Evert, the officer who made the arrest, Neveloff said. He said she remains unemployed.
