Damon W. Bethel This is Me

Education

 Web References

1. 1. www.delawareonline.com

   www.delawareonline.com/apps/pb - [Cached]

   Published on: 5/1/2007   Last Visited: 5/1/2007

   Damon Bethel
   
   A Dover High School chemistry teacher was arrested this morning in connection with an incident last month where he reportedly forced a student to drive him to a spot in Dover so he could buy some marijuana.
   
   Dover police charged Damon Bethel, 36, of Smyrna, with coercion and official misconduct. Bail was set at $1,000, police said.
   
   The alleged incident occurred April 21 when the teacher approached one of his students in the early morning hours while he was filling his car up with gas and asked for a ride. The student refused.
   
   The teacher then threatened to fail the student in class if he didn't give him a ride, acccording to court records.
   
   Dover police Lt. James Hosfelt said while the student was paying for the gas, Bethel allegedly opened the car door and got into the rear of the vehicle.
   ...
   Bethel allegedly told the student where to drive and when to stop.
   
   Then he told the student to turn the engine off and wait for him as he walked away.
   
   When he later returned, he was in the company of an unknown woman.
   ...
   Bethel was arrested this morning at Dover High School, at Pat Lynn Drive in Dover.
   ...
   Damon Bethel is not a chemistry teacher, he's a bum. He played football for Universiry of Miami, got an English degree along the way and has bounced around from school to school since. He moved down here to live with his parents from Massachusetts last year and was run out of Smyrna after one year. He gives real teachers a bad name. He's not a teacher, he's a guy who got an English Education degree from a joke of a school, Miami, and has duped schools into hiring him because he looks like a great candidate on paper. African-American male, English degree, father's a minister... could be a great, positive male role model for a school's minority population. Afterall, 50% of minorities in Delaware drop out of high school... he could have an impact right? Wrong! This guy is a complete loser, as evidence by his most recent actions. He is a horrible influence on young people... especially the one's he keeps getting hired to influence in a positive way. Kids look up to him because he played major college football, then he preys on that admiration.
   
   Previous poster is right: People don't get strung out on weed... I'll bet he just told the kid that was what he was getting.
   
   And chemistry teacher... if you ever spoke to the guy you would know that he wouldn't know the difference between a liquid and a solid. I wonder who the hell hired him to teach chemisty... he has an English degree and he can't even put a sentence together.
   
   Go 'Canes! U of M keeps churning out quality people. Posted by: cheebachicka - Tue May 01, 2007 5:04 pm First of all, weed doesn't make you act like a freakin' dope fiend. Secondly, doesn't he have his own car?

2. 2. www.delawareonline.com

   www.delawareonline.com/apps/pb - [Cached]

   Published on: 10/11/2007   Last Visited: 10/11/2007

   Jason Miller, of the state Attorney General's Office, said Wednesday that at a Sept. 18 trial in Kent County Court of Common Pleas, the judge dismissed misdemeanor charges of acts constituting coercion and official misconduct against 36-year-old Damon W. Bethel.
   ...
   Bethel was arrested in May after his teenage accuser was stopped by Wesley College security officers for driving erratically in downtown Dover. The 18-year-old teenage told the officers that his teacher jumped into his car while he was getting gas about 1:30 a.m. at Leipsic Road and North Du Pont Highway and told him to drive him downtown so he could buy some "weed."
   
   Police located the teacher's book bag in the car along with Bethel's school faculty identification card, police said in court records.
   
   Bethel, who had been working at Dover High School for about a year, was placed on suspension after his arrest.
   
   Bethel said Wednesday he now plans to file a petition with the school for a hearing to get his job back.

3. 3. www.delawareonline.com

   www.delawareonline.com/apps/pb - [Cached]

   Published on: 5/2/2007   Last Visited: 5/2/2007

   Damon W. Bethel is charged with acts constituting coercion.
   
   A Dover High School teacher, accused of threatening to flunk one of his chemistry students if he did not give him a ride downtown to buy drugs last month, has been suspended with pay pending the outcome of the case.
   
   Damon W. Bethel, 36, of Smyrna, was charged by Dover police with acts constituting coercion and official misconduct by unauthorized exercise of his official functions -- both misdemeanor offenses, said police spokesman Lt.
   ...
   When reached for comment Tuesday, Bethel said, "I'm thinking to myself, they will find the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq before they find any truth in this story."
   ...
   Bethel then told the student "if he did not give him a ride he would fail him in his class," according to court records.
   
   As the teen finished pumping gas, police say Bethel jumped in the back seat.
   
   The teen said after he dropped another passenger off at his Dover home, Bethel got into the front seat and told the student to take him downtown so he could buy "some weed for him and his woman," police said in court records.
   
   Bethel directed the driver to an unknown location downtown, where he then got out of the car. Police said he told the teen to pull over and turn off the car's engine and lights so "they" wouldn't think he was the "popo" or police.
   
   The teen told police that he became nervous when a strange man started circling his car, so he made a U-turn and drove to the other side of the street. Bethel again walked up to the car and told him to shut off the lights.
   
   Minutes later, police said, Bethel returned with a woman. The two were acting suspiciously, so the teen decided to leave them there, police said in court records. But as he was about to leave, a woman whom he said he did not know got in his car and told him a group of women were after her and wanted to beat her up.
   
   The teen took off north in the area of North New and Fulton streets and told the woman he was going to pull over and drop her off.
   ...
   Police located the teacher's book bag in the car along with Bethel's school faculty identification card, police said in court records.
   
   "I'm a very approachable person, you could always talk to me, we can work out what extra work to do, and I never turn anyone away," Bethel said of the accusations. "It's just a crime that someone tries to take advantage of my niceness."
   
   Bethel declined to comment on whether he was in the student's vehicle and on reports he left his book bag behind.
   
   Capital School District Assistant Superintendent Tina Huff, meanwhile, said Tuesday that Bethel has been placed on paid suspension "until we find out the outcome of the full police investigation."
   ...
   Bethel declined to comment on his previous employment.
   ...
   "I'm a very approachable person, you could always talk to me, we can work out what extra work to do, and I never turn anyone away," Bethel said of the accusations. "It's just a crime that someone tries to take advantage of my niceness."
   
   What the hell does that have to do with what he did? Classic defense: deflect attention away from the indefensible act by saying, "yeah, but I'm a nice person" WHATEVER. I'll bet he has a poster of the Reverands Al and Jesse up in his classroom or in his bedroom at mommy's house.
   
   From what I have read here, he's the one that did the approaching, not the student. Spend two seconds with him and you will see he is a complete fruit-loop.
   
   The guy is a scumbag, pathological liar who plays the bumbling, gentle giant routine to any adult who challenges him on his indiscretions. He won't comment on his previous employment because he was forced out of Smyrna.
   ...
   Damon Bethel is not a chemistry teacher, he's a bum. He played football for University of Miami, got an English degree along the way and has bounced around from school to school since. He moved down here to live with his parents from Massachusetts last year and was run out of Smyrna after one year. He gives real teachers a bad name. He's not a teacher, he's a guy who got an English Education degree from a joke of a school, Miami, and has duped schools into hiring him because he looks like a great candidate on paper. African-American male, English degree, father's a minister... could be a great, positive male role model for a school's minority population. After all, 50% of minorities in Delaware drop out of high school... he could have an impact right? Wrong! This guy is a complete loser, as evidenced by his most recent actions. He is a horrible influence on young people... especially the one's he keeps getting hired to influence in a positive way. Kids look up to him because he played major college football, then he preys on that admiration.
   
   People don't get strung out on weed at 1:30 in the morning... I'll bet he just told the kid that was what he was getting.
   
   And chemistry teacher... if you ever spoke to the guy you would know that he wouldn't know the difference between a liquid and a solid. I wonder who the hell hired him to teach chemistry... he has an English degree and he can't even put a sentence together.
   
   Go 'Canes! U of M keeps churning out quality people.