Posted on 03/19/2012 8:29:31 AM PDT by Netalia
BOISE -- A teacher, political candidate, and former doctor is facing charges of aggravated assault after police say she threatened employees at a Staples store with a gun. We are beginning to learn more about Cynthia Clinkingbeard, and her behavior leading up to the incident on Friday night.
At the time of her arrest, Clinkingbeard was part of the adjunct faculty at Boise State and the faculty at College of Western Idaho.
Her students say that her behavior over the past few months was, at times, strange. Some students at CWI dropped her class because of what they called "erratic behavior".
Allan, Ruth, and Michael Burtcher all took Clinkingbeard's health and welness class at CWI this semester. They, and other students, say she would often berrate students and criticize their political beliefs. They also said she would make racially insensitive comments, shared each students' grades with the entire class, and made the class walk her dog around the building.
The Burtchers stopped going to the class and appealed their credits to the department chair.
A week and a half later, Clinkingbeard was arrested for threatening employees at an office supply store with a gun.
According to documents from the state Board of Medicine, Clinkingbeard is diagnosed with bipolar and narcissistic personality disorder. In 2005, the board said her diagnosis was making her resistant to treatment. They revoked her license to practice medicine.
Michael Burtcher says he is also bipolar and he knows it is manageable, because he manages his own condition with medication. "When you're bipolar, it's a mental rollercoaster for your emotions," Michael explained. "You need to find the medication to keep you stable."
But Ruth Burtcher says Clinkingbeard would often talk about a lack of need for most medication. When Ruth found out about Friday's arrest, her teacher's behavior started to make sense.
"Now knowing what her situation is, I hope she gets the help she needs. I really do. Because, there were moments, when she was just this incredible person, very inspiring, and all-of-a-sudden, it would just go away. And she was a totally different person," said Ruth Burtcher, who took Clinkingbeard's class at CWI.
The College of Western Idaho did not want to comment on the matter.
Boise State University says that Clinkingbeard's teaching duties are on hold pending legal proceedings, but she is excluded from the campus.
Joe 6-pack ~ Was it her Staples gun?
Darks? Anyone you know???
Dances With Wolves, Kicking Bird, Stands With Fists ... all noble "names"
CLINKINGBEARD?
Did the vomit stay so long that the beard ding-a-linged in the breeze like a wind chime.
CLINKINGBEARD?
OR
NO one at Ellis Island laughed so hard that Mr and Mrs decided that was not a good name to have in America?
I'd have walked that dog -- right over to the Dean's office...
lol love it!!!!!!!
I dunno. It seems "personality disorders" are diagnosed by symptoms that could just as easily be explained by an extreme lack of character. Lack of self-control, lack of empathy, lack of humility, those kind of sound like sins to me.
When that picture was posted on an earlier thread, I thought it was a joke. Let’s start with the eyebrows.....
I personally am a Christian. But a friend of mine who believes in karma says that most teachers are teaching the thing they need to learn.
Or a stapler on a gun salesman?
I don’t know either. It could be a combination of both. It’s hard to tell between someone who is driven by sin and someone who truly has a mental disorder. Could you say that a person with dementia acts on their will or the will of the disease? I say it’s a combination of both. In part dropping inhibitions due to the illness itself. Logical thinking skills are clouded and impaired. The will is still there to do harm. And it has to resonate within that person first.
I don’t know the answers. But I do know that people who surrounded this woman should have not allowed her to teach based on the fact she was deemed un-fit to practice medicine as well.
We offer Life Skills at my high school but it is only for the Sp Ed students who really need it
Post of the lunchhour!
“But a friend of mine who believes in karma says that most teachers are teaching the thing they need to learn. “
Hmm, I’ve taught my kids K-12, and am currently teaching them high school and elementary ed. I guess I need to learn everything!
I am in no way even well-versed on the subject, but I differentiate between “mental illness,” where the person is clearly not in control of their consciousness, and “personality disorder,” which seems to be a more recent classification of people who just act like jerks.
Don't they say that many people get into psychology to find out what's wrong with themselves?
That certainly seemed to be the case with the two psychologists I had dealings with.
She looks like something from the Netherlands, that keeps the ocean out.
She’s a Democrat with bipolar and narcissistic personality disorder. That qualifies her to be on the ticket with 0bama.
I’d imagine that, “personality disorders” probably exasperate “mental disease’s”... clearly it is so in this case. ;)
@ Persevero - Aye I think that was too broad of an observation. Some people may try to deflect from their own personal problems by trying to teach to those around them. As if they don’t have a problem themselves. But you can’t say “all teacher’s” do this. It’s probably a very small percentage who do.
@ Albion Wilde - Come to think of it. Clinkingbeard does kind of sound like a dwarf name. ;) So Dutch, or some other European reference does seem appropriate. Rather than an “Indian” one.
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