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E-mail StoryTeacher accused of trying to make meth wrote disturbing story, police reports say
| Monday, Feb 4 2008 11:51 AM
Last Updated: Monday, Feb 4 2008 3:24 PM
The Shafter High School chemistry teacher accused of trying to make methamphetamine in a school lab also dabbled in writing.
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Jeff Scheidemantel
Jeff Ryan Scheidemantel was apparently writing a story in which the lead character, a teacher at a Catholic high school, shoots and kills students in class during a dream sequence, according to Sheriff’s Department reports filed in Kern County Superior Court.
Scheidemantel faces charges of manufacturing meth and possession with the intent to manufacture meth. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Friday.
Kern High School District spokesman John Teves said Scheidemantel was placed on unpaid administrative leave on Jan. 22, the day charges were filed. Teves said he was not aware of Scheidemantel’s writings.
“He’s been charged with some pretty serious crimes,” Teves said.
An attorney had not been assigned to Scheidemantel’s case as of Monday afternoon, a secretary at the Kern County District Attorney’s office said.
Search warrants served Nov. 29 at Shafter High and Scheidemantel’s home in the 11400 block of Marazion Hill Court in Bakersfield turned up guns, meth ingredients and recipes for making the drug, the reports said. When asked by detectives why he had chemicals in his house and classroom that are used to make meth, Scheidemantel said the chemicals were for class purposes only.
“That’s what I do,” Scheidemantel was quoted as saying in the reports. “I am a chemistry teacher, and all those things are there, but they’re for labs.”
The investigation into Scheidemantel began when local and federal authorities were alerted that he went online to buy red phosphorous, a key ingredient for making meth. Scheidemantel told detectives the day his house was searched that he wanted the red phosphorous so he could teach his students how to make matchsticks.
Detectives told him that red phosphorous is toxic and highly flammable and asked if he thought that was an appropriate substance to expose students to.
“I guess I didn’t think of that,” Scheidemantel said, according to the reports.
Scheidemantel’s wife, Amanda, told detectives she knew nothing about her husband purchasing red phosphorus, the reports said.
Detectives found what appeared to be the first two chapters of a book Scheidemantel was writing during a search of his school e-mail account, according to the reports. The schoolteacher Scheidemantel created in the story hates everything about his employment, uses offensive language when referring to students and shows disgust for school administration.
The character carries a pistol and eventually shoots students in a dream sequence . Three handguns and a shotgun were seized from Scheidemantel’s residence.