This autumn, at Rufus King International High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, a shocking absurd drama took place. Amy Jones, a 23-year-old woman, simply because "life was too boring" and "she hated children," shamelessly infiltrated her alma mater and pretended to be a substitute teacher on the stage.
Over two hours, the classroom became a scene of chaos, filled with discrimination, language bullying, and sexual suggestive remarks. She forcibly divided the students into groups based on race and gender, and also viciously insulted several students, calling a male student “fat bastard” and asking a female student if she wanted to become a “stripteaser or prostitute”. It wasn’t until the third class that the principal checked the substitute teacher’s records and found that there was no such person recorded.
Even more incredible is that, after being arrested and released on bail during her first court appearance, this woman not only failed to go to a mental hospital for treatment, but also ‘recreated’ the same scam within just three days. She was caught again while attempting to steal cars across states and evade capture.
American media video screenshot
According to local Wisconsin media reports, including WISN 12 News and FOX 6 Milwaukee, the incident occurred on September 24. At that time, Rufus King International High School faced a serious teacher shortage—eight teachers were absent due to illness. The school's substitute system immediately called in seven substitute teachers to handle emergencies, but a class on the fifth floor remained in an awkward situation with no one available to take care of it.
This precisely gave Jones an opportunity. She had studied at that school and was well aware of the administrative procedures and daily routines of her alma mater. A week before the incident, she sneaked into the school to scout the area. Together with several students, she quietly entered the campus, evaded security checks, and walked around on campus, overhearing that the school’s staff were discussing a third-party tutoring agency.
On the morning of the incident, Jones came to the school front desk and confidently claimed to be a teacher sent by the substitute teaching agency. The administrative staff did not check her identity documents or qualifications at all in the system, and simply assigned her to the class that was currently short-staffed.
In a statement made to the school community, Principal Bardiello said that Jones “did indeed pass the school’s routine safety checks”, but the office “did not follow the proper procedures stipulated by the district when verifying her status as an adjunct teacher”.
Badiello said that office staff must first verify whether the person coming to teach is listed in a third-party teacher substitution system called Frontline, and that they should be assigned to that school only if a particular teacher is absent.
Every time a substitute teacher arrives at school, we should do this. There is no reason not to do so. But clearly, this time was different. Jones walked into the classroom openly.
At that time, there was another teacher who worked with Jones to prepare the course materials for 20 minutes. After this teacher left, Jones began her mischievous actions. The first thing she did after entering the classroom was to order all the students to stand up and forcibly assign them seats according to ‘race and gender’, thereby isolating the children.
A 16-year-old boy told investigators that during the roll call, he directly called a male classmate “fat bastard”, and then pointed at a female classmate, viciously predicting that she would become a stripper or prostitute when she grew up. Facing two white boys in the class, Jones said, “You two look like the kind of people who would commit a campus shooting incident.”
She also openly played rap music full of vulgar language in class, talked about indecent topics from the podium, and asked the children whether they were homosexuals or virgins. She made a large number of obscene remarks with strong sexual implications.
According to criminal litigation documents cited by US media, Jones even asked if any students brought electronic cigarettes or marijuana, as the classroom was 'terrible and annoying'. She also boasted that she 'had a felony record and didn't mind going to jail'.
It was not until the third class that the students, feeling extremely uncomfortable and scared, secretly reported the incident to the school authorities via their phones. At 10:10 am, school police and the principal arrived at the scene. After checking the teacher scheduling system and finding that no such person existed, they finally removed Jones from the school.
Five days after the incident, Milwaukee police arrested Jones at a mental hospital. In the police interrogation, Jones’ motive for the crime was extremely absurd. She said she did it “purely out of boredom,” and that she “hates children,” wanting to “just have some fun.”
She still said proudly to the detective handling the case in the interrogation room that doing this “will make me famous.” When the officer told her that she might end up with a notorious reputation, Jones wasn’t only not ashamed, but she became extremely excited. She clapped her fingers and started dancing in the interrogation room, shouting that she couldn’t wait to get out of prison.
