If this isn't an April Fool's Day hoax, it could have been a good one.

If it's legitimate, then TNCM hereby nominates the would-be victim/educator for a Top-10 Worst Teachers of the Year Award (which, subject to certain eligibility restrictions — i.e., the individual must be a member of a union and agree to quit teaching — includes $10,000 in prize money!).

Any teacher so inept and reviled as an authority figure as to ignite an armed insurrection among eight- and nine-year-olds ought to consider another line of work. There are plenty of other occupations where one can still both suckle at public bosom and inspire passionate hostility and contempt in one's fellow human beings which do not involve potentially scarring pre-adolescent minds and moral sensibilities for life. The Department of Motor Vehicles is a good example, as is any tax-revenue collections agency.

So it is written:

Nine children have been given discipline up to and including long-term suspension, said Theresa Martin, spokeswoman for the Ware County (Georgia) school system. She would not be more specific but said none of the children had been back to school since the case came to light.

The purported target is a veteran educator who teaches third-grade students with learning disabilities including attention deficit disorder, delayed development and hyperactivity, friends and parents said.

The scheme involved a division of roles, Tanner said. One child's job was to cover windows so no one could see outside, he said. Another was supposed to clean up after the attack.

...The children, ages 8 and 9, were apparently mad at the teacher because she had scolded one of them for standing on a chair, Tanner said. A prosecutor said they are too young to be charged with a crime under Georgia law.