We’ve all witnessed high school brawls. Typically, two students get into it over a love interest or perceived disrespect and fists fly until security or a coach or two comes to break it up. No big deal.

However, what is not expected at any high school is for a teacher – that is, a professional educator – to attack another professional educator in the hallway between classes. However, this is exactly what happened at Poughkeepsie High School this past week as 40 year-old English teacher Ronette Ricketts (pictured above) took an 8″ Phillips head screwdriver and went H.A.M. on her 54 year-old fellow English teacher Cynthia Glozier.

Please note that Rickets did not merely smack her elder colleague upside the head with said screwdriver. She gripped it in her fist and stabbed the woman 16 times – three wounds to the head, two puncture wounds to the neck, and 11 wounds to the back. This occurred after the two were seen having a very normal conversation in the hallway. Eyewitnesses say that Ricketts asked Glozier to come to her classroom to talk about something. Glozier replied that she needed to grade some papers in the library, and that’s when the carnage began.

It was all caught on video surveillance at the school as well as seen by eyewitnesses, who also say that Ricketts seemed intent on killing her colleague. The horrific attack would have been lethal if it had not been for the acts of senior Justin Richardson, who was able to knock the screwdriver loose, ending the bloodshed. A visibly shaken Richardson gave a video account of the day’s events.

Ronette Ricketts has been charged with 1st degree attempted assault, 2nd degree assault, and criminal possession of a weapon (even though the weapon was only a screwdriver?). Do you think something provoked this attack or was it merely a case of spontaneous rage?

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