[chris]

A 13-year-old eighth-grader at Selby Lane School in Atherton, Calif., locked herself in a school bathroom and spent about 11 minutes on the phone with a 911 dispatcher on March 1, 2011, telling police her math teacher had lost his temper and started knocking over furniture, according to police statements and local news accounts.

The girl told the Atherton Police dispatcher that the teacher, John Haynes, had sworn at classmates and grown angry after students failed to answer certain problems, and that he had knocked over a desk, KQED reported. She cried during parts of the recorded call and said she was afraid Haynes would notice she was phoning police.

Officers reached the classroom around 2:30 p.m. and found no emergency. "Officers found a calm teacher with class in session," Atherton Police Sgt. Tim Lynch said, adding that other students in the room had not been bothered by the outburst. Police concluded that Haynes had raised his voice, used profanity and lifted a desk a few inches before dropping it to get the class's attention, but that he had broken no law.

Because officers had been dispatched, the Redwood City School District placed Haynes on paid administrative leave the following day. "The teacher was placed on leave because there was a police response," Deputy Superintendent John Baker said.

The girl's mother defended Haynes in the days after the call, telling reporters the episode had been blown out of proportion and crediting him with helping her daughter reach the honor roll.

Haynes acknowledged the outburst in an April 26 letter to parents, writing that frustration over his class's lack of progress had led him to shout, berate students, use profanity, knock over a desk and threaten to throw things, according to Palo Alto Online. As part of an agreement to keep his job, he spent the rest of the school year on medical leave, agreed to anger-management counseling and was reassigned to another school for the following year.