Stuyvesant Teacher Caught In Terrorist Arms Sting

After a year long investigation, former Stuyvesant High School music teacher Theophilus Burroughs has been arrested for selling weapons to people he thought were connected to Hamas and Hezbollah. He was busted by Bronx DA investigators at the Westchester Square warehouse, where he expected to get $100,000 for night-vision goggles, two bulletproof vests and 200,000 counterfeit cigarette stamps. He reportedly wet his pants during his arrest, so much so that the police van seats needed to be lined with plastic. Ha ha.

Burroughs taught at Stuyvesant in 2002 and 2003, and has been on unpaid medical leave from the Department of Education since last September. That's when he reportedly first began buying untaxed cigarettes from informants at the Westchester Square warehouse. But he soon began selling firearms, and frequently praised Hamas and Hezbollah to informants. For good measure, he also allegedly spoke about killing cops and Jews.

Burroughs reportedly spoke enthusiastically about terrorist plans, suggesting informants blow up the Jewish Community Center on West 76th Street, and boasted that he knew where to find fertilizer used to make bombs (like the kind Faisal Shahzad couldn't find). He faces a number of charges, such as weapons possession and forgery. The Department of Education is also taking steps to fire him, citing misconduct at the Cobble Hill School for American Studies.

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By Jaya Saxena in News on September 15, 2010 11:53 AM

Comments [rss]

eugenie98

I'm not surprised, Stuy had quite a number of horrific teachers. The AP's and Teitel do their best to keep out the riff-raff but the machinations of the DOE still allow the insane in...

What happened to Miss Hall, does she no longer teach music appreciation?

Kelles

I'm shocked!

Peter Stuyvesant is kicking himself w/his one good leg right now

substandardgaussian

I had him for "Music Appreciation" first semester of my freshman year.

He was horrific. He didn't know a damn thing, always came to class late, let us out incredibly early, and argued about the dumbest things.

He thought "twenty-five percent" was written ".25%" (notice the period), and we had an extended, weeklong argument about where "Asia Minor" was. Not a single student or faculty member respected him. The head of the music department was trying to get rid of him from day one.

He was a cretin in almost every respect, and I admit that I'm having quite a bit of schadenfreude about this news. I knew he was an ass, but this development blew all of my expectations out of the water.

John L

Sucks to be him.

I wonder what his former students think of him.

Remember when journalism was more than just sitting at a computer and rehashing press releases into different words? When reporters went out there to try to find out more about the story or at least got a quote from someone who knew the person? That's not a diss to Gothamist because I don't expect you guys to play that role but I googled this guy just because I was curious and there's literally hundreds of version of the same exact story with different word configurations. Is journalism just who can make better use the thesaurus now?

I'm ranting, never mind me.

sorry.

Guest

dude, this is better than livejournal. your shit gets actually read!

justthinkin

A music teacher? Given that he taught at Stuyvestant, I would have thought chemistry.

S.D.

Jaya, isn't more honest to say:

"FORMER Stuyvesant Teacher Caught In Terrorist Arms Sting"??

From above, he hasn't taught there in Seven Years. Mind you, it's not as misleading as your headline, but even the Rag Known as the post has "Terrorist sting nets city teach"...