Substitute Teacher

John J. Lang Jr. may have been dishelved, unkempt, poorly organized and unable to control or discipline the fifth-grade class he was called in to teach in Camden in February 1988, but those are not crimes, his defense attorney said yesterday. Lang, 39, of Lansdale, Montgomery County, is charged with aggravated sexual assualt on a child, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years, and 27 counts of endangering the welfare of a child, each of which carries a maximum sentence of five years.

Walnut Street Theatre presents the stage production of Miss Nelson Is Missing, a musical based on the children's book by author Harry Allard. The disobedient students of Room 207, the worst-behaved class in the school, take advantage of their teacher, Miss Nelson. However, when witchy teacher Viola Swamp comes in as a substitute the students regret their behavior and wish for Miss Nelson to return. Will these unruly kids be stuck with their horrible substitute forever? Miss Nelson Is Missing, 10:30 a.m. Friday, 10:30 a.m., 1 and 3:30 p.m. Saturday through April 20 at Walnut Street Theatre, 825 Walnut St. Tickets: $10-$20.

A substitute teacher has been charged with sexually assaulting a 9-year-old special-education student in a bathroom at Union Terrace Elementary School in Allentown, Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin said. Michael James Agrippine, 47, of Upper Saucon Township, was charged with aggravated indecent assault, institutional sexual assault, and indecent assault. According to the arrest affidavit, filed Wednesday, Agrippine acknowledged being in a bathroom stall with the victim, a boy, caressing him from behind, and penetrating him with a finger.

Mary Mascaro Ferri, 78, a former teacher of public school and church classes, died Wednesday of congestive heart failure in the health-care facility of the Twining Village Retirement Community, Holland. Mrs. Ferri had been a substitute teacher for the Bensalem School District for seven years. She taught Bible studies for 10 years for the women's circle of Northampton Presbyterian Church in Holland, and before that taught at the Bristol Assembly of God, where she served as Sunday school superintendent.

A man who burned himself to death on the Amherst town common in an apparent protest against the Persian Gulf war was identified yesterday as Gregory D. Levey, 30, a substitute teacher. Authorities said Levey acted alone when he doused himself with two gallons of paint thinner and set himself ablaze Monday afternoon in a protest that horrified onlookers in the center of Amherst, a university town of about 35,000 residents about 75 miles west of Boston. Levey was the son of Robert Levey, Boston Globe restaurant critic, and the stepson of Ellen Goodman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Globe.

Former Philadelphia substitute teacher Mohammed Abdo said two girls retaliated against his scoldings by making up claims that he kissed and fondled them. "I swear to Allah that I'm innocent," he said through a translator in court yesterday. "I would never have done such a thing. " Family Court Judge Tama Myers Clark found him guilty anyway. Abdo, 53, was convicted of two counts each of corrupting the morals of a minor, indecent assault and simple assault. He faces a maximum prison term ranging from one to five years when he is sentenced July 31. The mother of Heather Ackurman, the 10-year-old girl who accused Abdo of hugging her and rubbing her genitals, said she was relieved by the verdict.

Armed only with her experience and wit, substitute teacher Jane Varnes must encounter unknown challenges each day at Octorara Intermediate School. "My friend John tried to sit with me today, and Mrs. Varnes wouldn't let him," said 12-year-old Bobby Hilton, one of the seventh graders she taught for a day on Sept. 25. "He tried to make up an excuse that he forgot his glasses, and he said he had to (sit there so he could) see the blackboard. " It didn't work. "She's strict," said Bobby's classmate Mike Byczkowski, 12. On every schoolday, substitute teachers are working in Chester County public schools, usually earning $50 to $60 per day. Daily substitutes working in the Octorara and Unionville-Chadds Ford school districts have the opportunity to earn more because those districts offer a graduated pay scale.

A federal judge has acquitted a Philadelphia substitute teacher on drug charges in a case authorities said marked the first appearance of "brown heroin" in the city in years. After hearing the prosecution's evidence, Judge James T. Giles on Wednesday acquitted Patrick Nweze, preventing the case from going to the jury. However, the jury did continue hearing evidence on Nweze's nephew, Sunday Obialo, and yesterday convicted him of conspiracy to distribute heroin. Sentencing for Obialo, of Griscom Street near Orthodox in Frankford, was set for June 16. Nweze was arrested in a raid on his house on Hawthorne Street near Wakeling in Frankford Aug. 5. Police said that in Nweze's basement, they found brown heroin, worth more than $500,000, in the covers of four textbooks.

Three Cherry Hill school board members running for reelection will face a challenge this fall from a woman who led a group of fellow parents in bringing a bullying complaint against a Cherry Hill High School East teacher. Susan Levy Warner will face Sherrie Cohen, Steve Robbins, and Elliott Roth in November's election. The four will compete for three seats with three-year terms. With three daughters in the district - first and fourth graders at Bret Harte Elementary School and a freshman at Cherry Hill East - "I have a personal investment," said Warner, chief executive of a human resources outsourcing firm.

A fourth educator pleaded guilty Thursday to charges in the student-teacher sex scandal that riled Triton Regional High School in Runnemede last year. Nick Martinelli, 28, of Cherry Hill, faces a sentence of probation for his guilty plea to fourth-degree hindering apprehension, the Camden County Prosecutor's Office said. He immediately resigned his position with the Black Horse Pike School District and will forfeit his certificate to teach in New Jersey as a result of his plea before Superior Court Judge Thomas Brown in Camden.

Charles J. Musumeci had a resumé to make your head spin. It was not top-heavy with titles, not burnished with awards. Rather, it defined a venturesome spirit, best known as "Moose," who wasn't content to do just one thing in life, or even a half-dozen things; who got creative with his 58 years and, it is said, had a smile on his face from start to finish. At Cherry Hill High School East, Mr. Musumeci substitute-taught any subject; coached baseball, cross-country and cheerleading; coordinated standardized testing, and directed student plays.

Two former teachers and the former principal of Triton Regional High School in Runnemede, implicated last fall in a sexual-abuse case, pleaded guilty Monday to official misconduct and failing to report the incidents to authorities. As part of the plea agreements, the former school employees forfeited their right to hold any public jobs in the state, including as educators. The teachers, Jeff Logandro, 32, and Dan Michielli, 27, both of Blackwood, were accused in October of having improper personal and physical relationships with female students between November 2011 and June 2012.

Two former teachers and the former principal of Triton Regional High School in Runnemede, implicated last fall in a sexual-abuse case, pleaded guilty Monday to official misconduct and failing to report the incidents to authorities. As part of the plea agreements, the former school employees forfeited their right to hold any public jobs in the state, including as educators. The teachers, Jeff Logandro, 32, and Dan Michielli, 27, both of Blackwood, were accused in October of having improper personal and physical relationships with female students between November 2011 and June 2012.

A fifth grader has been pulled from her South Philadelphia school in a standoff between her mother and the School District over an incident involving either the false threat of a gun or a hysterical response to a harmless piece of paper. What happened at the Fell School on West Oregon Avenue on Jan. 14 depends on which of two wildly disparate accounts fairly describes the event and its aftermath. The child's mother, Dianna Kelly, said that the incident was a misunderstanding and that school officials overreacted.

After West Deptford wrestling coach Chris Scannell took the job last June, he more closely resembled a substitute teacher than the program's future. West Deptford's wrestlers would not listen to Scannell, messing around in practice and developing a tendency for tardiness. It was like a raucous classroom. "When he first came in, he was really lenient," West Deptford wrestler Rory Bonner said. "We could pretty much do whatever we wanted, and we would show up late to practice. " "I was at another school for a while, and I had to build that rapport," said Scannell, who previously served as an assistant coach at Audubon.

A substitute teacher has been charged with sexually assaulting a 9-year-old special-education student in a bathroom at Union Terrace Elementary School in Allentown, Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin said. Michael James Agrippine, 47, of Upper Saucon Township, was charged with aggravated indecent assault, institutional sexual assault, and indecent assault. According to the arrest affidavit, filed Wednesday, Agrippine acknowledged being in a bathroom stall with the victim, a boy, caressing him from behind, and penetrating him with a finger.

Miriam Cosand Ward, 96, a Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Camden County home economist who in the 1970s taught thousands of New Jerseyans how to sew, plan meala, and run a household, died of congestive heart failure on Sunday, Dec. 23, at her home at Medford Leas, a continuing care retirement community. Mrs. Ward had been a champion of good nutrition and a mentor to future homemakers since graduating from Earlham College in Richmond, Ind., in 1937. After carrying a double major in mathematics and home economics, she chose the latter career path, and stuck with it until her retirement in 1980.