Ex-teacher gets probation for forging signature of parent
A former Bethel Local Schools teacher convicted of forging the signature of a parent on school documents was sentenced Tuesday to five years of probation, a suspended 180-day jail term and surrendered her teaching license to the state.
Andrea Bullmaster, 42, of Dayton was originally indicted on two counts each of felony forgery and tampering with records. Miami County prosecutors said a parent contacted the sheriff’s office earlier this year with concerns about Bullmaster
allegedly communicating with her child via text messaging. There were hundreds of messages between the two via texts and Instagram, sheriff’s detectives wrote in their investigation report.
The charges centered on two documents Bullmaster was accused of forging with the student’s mother’s name. The forms were for schedule changes allowing the student to be in her classroom, according to the report.
As part of a plea deal, Bullmaster later pleaded guilty to attempted forgery, a misdemeanor, in county Common Pleas Court.
“I regret my stupid actions,” she said in asking for leniency from Judge Jeannine Pratt before hearing the sentence.
“This is a disturbing series of incidents where you crossed the ethical boundaries of the position you held” as a teacher, Pratt said. “You are very fortunate to have the deal that you got but it’s not going to be over today. You are going to have to provide yourself, prove that you see what you did was wrong.”
Bullmaster was sentenced to up to five years of community control and a suspended 180-day jail term. The jail term could be imposed if she violates conditions of the community control, Pratt said. The conditions require her to do 100 hours of community service, undergo an assessment by a sex offender specialist, attend mental health counseling to address issues identified, have no direct or indirect contact with the victim and his family, have no Internet or text messaging correspondence with minors and have no unsupervised contact with minors other than her own children.