the other driver. i saw her. she looked at me. i know that paula nawrocki was driving that car. paula nawrocki denied the allegation, but was arrested and charged with harassment, stalking, simple and aggravated assault, making terroristic threats, and recklessly endangering the life of joanne chambers, over 100 counts in all. i was finding out i was charged with many, many horrendous things i had never heard about before. the school district suspended her from her teaching position with pay. if convicted she could serve five years in jail. after nawrocki s arrest, the letters, threats, and mailings stopped. nawrocki maintained her innocence and hired both an attorney and private investigator to help. the investigator was a former state policeman and even he admitted that paula s situation
joanne chambers denies that she created the campaign of threats against her. i could never ever do this stuff to myself. i don t think that i could be functioning in a world as a parent, as a teacher, as a wife, if i were that sick to do that to myself. i think joanne chambers did it to herself, yes. i think she sent the barbie doll. i think this was all a stage for joanne. i hope the lesson that people can learn from this is that you really are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty and you aren t supposed to be guilty until proven innocent. i ve never seen anything like this. and if i cover cases for another 40 years, i think i ll give you that same answer still. captions by vitac www.vitac.com
another school. shortly after her transfer, a box in pink wrapping paper was found at the front door of the school. inside was a barbie doll, the throat slashed with a razor blade and covered with paint the color of blood. the dress was identical to one often worn by joanne chambers. the hair was cut and styled like chambers as well. i said good-bye to my husband. like i wanted him to remember me saying good-bye. i lived every day thinking that it was truly possible that it could be my last. in november of 1994, chambers said a car tried to run her off the highway. she said she saw the face of the driver. i go off the road. i look. she s looking right at me. i will never forget that look. never. i will never forget it. she looked right at me.
it was a snide reference to the school superintendent as colonel klink, a character in the hogan s heros television series. a teacher in the school was once overheard referring to the superintendent in this way. her name was paula nawrocki. like joanne chambers, she also taught first grade and had worked in the school district for eight years. i was totally surprised. i was positive that it wasn t anybody in the building, that it could be explained in some other way. the letters continued, but soon there were other incidents. the first was something joanne chambers found under her desk. i went to start my lesson with my children and sat down at a chair and had a dress on and put my hand underneath to straighten my dress out. i was covered with feces. i couldn t even tell you what i felt like.
unlikely the target of a hate campaign. she was married with a 10-year-old son and had no known enemies. i can speak with assurance about joanne s teaching abilities. she s highly recommended by other teachers in the district. she was also highly respected by parents. she was an outstanding teacher. all her recommendations show that. it appeared that someone had a grudge against her. look in her desk. she seems to like jack daniels. chambers found the whiskey bottle in her desk drawer and said personal items were missing. there were things missing from my drawers. the picture of my child and myself and my friend and her daughter was taken from my desk. the police suspected that a fellow teacher or school employee was sending the letters since they often alluded to activities going on inside the school. one of the letters contained an interesting clue.