Student Rants at Teacher in Viral Video

Hemera Technologies/ThinkStock(DUNCANVILLE, Texas) -- A Texas high school student’s rant against his teacher has gone viral on YouTube, prompting the district to look at its teaching procedures.

“If you would just get up and teach us instead of handing ‘em a packet, yo. There’s kids in here that don’t learn like that. … They need to learn face-to-face,” Duncanville High School student Jeff Bliss said in the YouTube video recorded by a classmate. “You want kids to come to class? You want them to get excited? You gotta come in here, you gotta make ‘em excited. To change him and make him better, you gotta touch his freakin’ heart. You can’t expect a kid to change if all you do is just tell him.”

Bliss, 18, was kicked out of class by his history teacher after a discussion escalated between the two. Bliss said that a test required three days to complete, but his teacher demanded that the class complete the test within two days.

In the YouTube video, Bliss was told repeatedly by his teacher to leave the classroom. However, as he made his way to the exit, he continued to tell his teacher that her pedagogical approach was wrong.

“You gotta take this job seriously,” Bliss said in the YouTube video. “This is the future of this nation. And when you come in here like you did last time and make a statement about how, ‘This is my paycheck,’ indeed it is, but this is my country’s future and my education.”

Bliss told ABC News that he wished he’d delivered his message in a different manner.

“As far as my attitude was during the video, that could have been taken better in a better manner,” he said. “But at the same time, I realize we all have our spur-of-the-moments.”

Duncanville School District Chief Communications Officer Tammy Kuykendall told ABC News she understood Bliss’ view.

“He makes a number of valid statements about how schools across America need to change, and it is creating a conversation,” she said. “We have focus groups, student panels, so we listen to students and we will continue to listen.”

Kuykendall added that she does not condemn Bliss.

“I feel it is important to share [that] we don’t blame this student or think he did something wrong,” she said. “There are other ways to go about sharing concerns happening in a classroom. Administrators need to know about that. He makes a number of valid statements.”

Bliss’s mother, Rhonda Bliss, said she is not upset with her son and respects his stance.

“I have told the people I support what he did,” she said. “I am an educator, too, and I understand his passion and I understand his concerns, and I support what he did.”

She said Bliss’s tirade was not specifically aimed at one person alone.

“It wasn’t to the teacher,” she said. “It was to address the bigger issue which is education.”

As for Bliss, he said he hopes his declaration inspires others to take action.

“I’m hoping that maybe this sparks something up in other people, teachers, and parents, and even administrators, as well,” he said. “I’m hoping that maybe they, themselves stand up and also demand more. I hope they go to their sons’ schools or school board meetings and speak and see what’s going on in the schools.”

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Days After Fertilizer Plant Explosion, Some Residents Return Home

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(WEST, Texas) -- After small fires were contained at the site of the massive West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion, a town official said on Saturday that some residents are being allowed to return to their homes.

"Everything is safe. Any rumors you've heard today, forget about it," West City Council member Steve Vanek said at a news conference Saturday. "Everything is safe, safe and safe."

While the news was welcome for some of West's displaced residents, those returning are under strict orders to stay in their homes and will also have to adhere to an evening curfew.

Evacuated residents have been waiting to return to assess the condition of their homes and belongings after they were forced to flee at a moment's notice after a blast on Wednesday at West Fertilizer Co. killed at least 14 people, injured 200 more and carved a widespread path of destruction.

Firefighters responded at the plant on Wednesday at 7:29 p.m., and after realizing the severity of the situation, began evacuating people in the vicinity.

Approximately 20 minutes later, an explosion tore through a four-to-five block radius, leveling roughly 80 homes and a middle school and trapping 133 residents of a nursing home in rubble. The blast was so powerful, residents said it shook the ground and there were reports of people hearing it several miles away.

"At some buildings, walls were ripped off, roofs were peeled back," Waco Police Department Sgt. William Swanton said.

The cause of the explosion is still under investigation

Donald Adair, the owner of West Fertilizer Co. and a lifelong resident of the town, said Friday his heart was "broken with grief."

"This tragedy will continue to hurt deeply for generations to come," Adair said in a statement.

"My family and I can't express enough our deep appreciation for the loving service and selfless sacrifice from within and around our community responding to the urgent needs of those affected," he said.

Adair vowed his company would "pledge to do everything we can to understand what happened to ensure nothing like this ever happens again in any community."

As the town works to rebuild after the tragedy, Vanek said a large memorial service is being planned to honor the victims, many of whom were first responders.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Rescuers Searching for Survivors, Missing People After TX Explosion

Mike Fuentes/Bloomberg via Getty Images(WEST, Texas) -- Search and rescue teams in Texas are looking for survivors and missing people amid buildings where walls and roofs have been torn away and other buildings have been flattened by an explosion at a fertilizer plant. Firefighters are among the missing and authorities fear that five to 15 people could be dead.

"It ranges from broken windows to complete devastation," Waco Police Department Sgt. William Swanton said at a news conference Thursday. "There are homes that are no longer homes."

At some buildings, "walls were ripped off, roofs were peeled back," the sergeant said.

The fire and explosion Wednesday night in a small town north of Waco prompted widespread evacuations and sent more than 160 injured people to hospitals.

The blast at the West Fertilizer Plant in West, Texas, occurred just before 8 p.m., but officials still were struggling to tally the dead and injured early Thursday morning and searching door-to-door amid the rubble for survivors, police said.

Authorities expressed concerns on Thursday about looting, but now say they believe what was initially reported to them was an isolated incident.

"I have confirmed at least there was an incident last night when they thought they may have had a looter," Swanton said, adding that the incident occurred "very, very early in the scenario."

He said there was no arrest and the problem is "not rampant," but people are still being kept out of the main disaster area.

Swanton said the five to 15 deaths is a "rough number" and they are unverified.

"I don't have a number of how many they have rescued or how many potential bodies they have found," he said.

"There are still firefighters missing," Swanton said.

He said an estimated three or four who are missing are volunteer firefighters, "meaning that they probably have a very large contingent of people that are willing to risk their lives for the neighbors and community."

They are the first responders who were battling the fire when the explosion occurred, he said.

A firefighter and law enforcement officer who was previously mentioned as missing has been found, Swanton said. He is in a hospital with "pretty serious injuries," he added.

Swanton said authorities are still in search-and-rescue mode and are not yet in recovery mode.

"The town is secure. There are plenty of law enforcement officials that are stationed around the town," Swanton said. "There is no fire out of control. There is no chemical escape from the fertilizer plant that is out of control."

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Former Justice of the Peace Charged with Making 'Terroristic Threat'

Digital Vision/Thinkstock(KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas) -- A former Kaufman County, Texas, justice of the peace was charged with making a "terroristic threat" after authorities searched his home as part of the ongoing investigation into the killings of two prosecutors in the county.

Eric Williams, 46, of Kaufman, was booked into the Kaufman County Jail early Saturday morning. His bond was set at $1 million, ABC Dallas affiliate WFAA-TV reported.

The search was executed after the fatal shooting of District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, whose bodies were found in their Forney, Texas home on March 30. In January, Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse was gunned outside the county courthouse.

Williams was not named a suspect in the deaths of the Kaufman County officials, The Associated Press reported.

Authorities searched both Williams' home and his in-laws' house from Friday afternoon into the early hours of Saturday morning. They removed boxes, computers and guns from the former justice of the peace's residence, WFAA reported.

Earlier this month, Williams' hands were tested for gunshot residue. The test results were negative.

Williams' attorney, David Sergi, said his client denies the charges against him.

"[Williams] has cooperated with law enforcement and vigorously denies any and all allegations," Sergi said. "He wishes simply to get on with his life and hopes that the perpetrators and brought to justice."

The district attorney's office prosecuted and convicted Williams last year for two counts of felony theft, which resulted in him losing his justice of the peace position, WFAA reported.

Williams appealed his conviction. He is scheduled for a hearing on May 22 in the Fifth District Court of Appeals in Dallas.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Texas Sheriff's Office 'Taking Precautions' to Protect Elected Officials After District Attorney, Wife Slain

Hemera/Thinkstock(DALLAS) -- After the second murder of a prosecutor in the past two months in Kaufman County, Texas, the sheriff said his department was "taking precautions" to protect elected officials, but stopped short of saying he believed they were being targeted.

Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were found shot to death in their Forney home on Saturday, Sheriff David Byrnes said on Sunday.

Byrnes would not definitively say whether he believed the murders were related to the slaying of Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse, who was gunned down outside the courthouse on Jan. 31.

"We have nothing indicating that for sure," he said at a news conference on Sunday afternoon.

Byrnes declined to discuss what security measures were already in place and whether any new steps might be taken, but said people should not be afraid to go to the courthouse, where there would be "visible security."

"It's pretty obvious it's unnerving and its unnerving to the law enforcement community and the community at large, which is why we're striving to ensure the community we are providing public safety," he said.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Texas DA, Wife Found Shot to Death in Their Home

Ingram Publishing/Thinkstock(DALLAS) -- The Kaufman County, Texas, district attorney and his wife were found shot dead inside their home on Saturday, police said, nearly two months to the day that the county assistant district attorney was murdered in the county courthouse parking lot.

Police would say nothing more than that Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife Cynthia were found shot in their home in Forney, but sources told ABC affiliate WFAA-TV in Dallas that their front door was reportedly kicked in.

Investigators from the FBI, the Texas Rangers, the Department of Public Safety and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were all on scene and a wide roadblock was set up around the crime scene in the small rural town.

The task force investigating the murder of Kaufman County Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse was also at McLellands’ home.  Hasse was gunned down execution-style outside of the Kaufman County Courthouse on Thursday, Jan. 31, just before 9 a.m. by one or two unknown assailants as he walked from his car to the courthouse in Kaufman, southeast of Dallas.

The assailants, who may have been masked and dressed in black, fled the scene in a silver four-door sedan.

Hasse, 57, had been a longtime felony prosecutor for the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, according to WFAA-TV. He headed the organized crime unit in Dallas in the 1980s. He started work in Kaufman County three years ago.

McLelland had vowed to hunt down Hasse’s killer.

“He knows and I know there will be a reckoning,” McClelland said at Hasse’s memorial service, WFAA reported. “Too many people are focusing on that. That’s not going to be a problem.”

Authorities have also been trying to determine whether Hasse’s killing was related to the murder of Tom Clements, Colorado’s prison director, last month.

The Colorado man implicated in Clements’ murder, Evan Ebel, was killed in a shootout with police in Texas two days after the killing. He was pulled over by police in Texas and fired at deputies, launching a high- speed chase and shootout that ended when he was fatally struck by police gunfire.

Ballistics testing showed that the gun found on Ebel in the Texas shooting was the same one that was used to kill Clements. Police are trying to determine whether there are any other suspects who acted with Ebel in the murder.

Ebel is also a suspect in the murder of a pizza delivery man last Sunday, March 17, in Denver.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Texas School District to Arm Teachers

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(LUBBOCK, Texas) -- Educators in a Texas school district will soon be permitted to carry guns in the classroom, assuming they get approval from the school superintendent, pass a training course and obtain a concealed-handgun license.

The Levelland Independent School District, which is about 30 miles west of Lubbock, instituted the policy in response to last year's deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., as well as the shooting at the Aurora, Colo., movie theater.

"How do you describe a tragedy like that? It's devastating," Levelland ISD Superintendant Kelly Baggett told ABC News, referencing the Sandy Hook massacre. "It absolutely instilled fear in all of us and made us take a hard look at where we are with our safety and security."

Baggett said the Levelland ISD School board voted Thursday for the policy change allowing teachers to carry guns only after extensive research and a series of meetings.

"Not every teacher in Levelland is going to carry a gun to campus," Baggett said. "It will be certain individuals that I and the school approve. The training is paramount. It's absolutely the most important thing."

Under the new policy, teachers would first need to obtain a concealed-handgun license and pass a gun-training course. The exact nature of the training course isn't yet known, but the Texas State Legislature is considering legislation to establish standards for firearms training for public school employees.

Levelland would not be the first Texas school district to arm employees. David Thweatt, superintendent for Harrold Independent School District in north-central Texas, told ABC News that his school board voted unanimously to arm school employees after the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, which he says was a wakeup call.

"The idea that we have moved into a society that the police have to do everything is ridiculous," Thweatt said. "Active shooters know where they are going. If your school is known to have a policy in place where people are protecting children with deadly force, they are not coming to your school."

Thweatt says the training his employees received involved lots of time spent on accuracy and shooting, while the other component involved strategies for clearing and securing rooms. It took about a week to complete.

Baggett of the Levelland district said Texas law does not allow handguns on public school property, but a loophole exists in the penal code that says that a school board can authorize concealed handguns with the approval of a school attorney. The Levelland ISD has about 3,000 students and 485 staff members spread across eight campuses and, Baggett says, he hopes to arm two employees per campus.

Baggett says the parental and community response to the new policy arrangement has been mostly positive. "For the most part, we are getting very, very nice compliments and encouragement and positive remarks from our community members and they are applauding us for taking a stand and doing what we are doing," he said.

Baggett hopes to get those he chooses to arm trained this summer and have them ready and on campus before the start of the 2013-2014 school year.

"I have reservations about putting weapons in employees' hands," he said. "We are trained educators and it's a shame that it's gotten to the point in society that we are having to arm our school employees to protect their kids. But my philosophy is I want to do everything I can to protect our kids."

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Parolee, Saudi National Eyed as Possible Suspects in Colorado Shooting

Colorado Department of Corrections(MONUMENT, Colo.) -- Law enforcement authorities in two states are investigating whether a parolee who was gravely wounded Thursday after a high-speed car chase in Texas is connected to Tuesday night’s shooting death of Colorado prison chief Tom Clements.

The 28-year-old suspect, Evan Ebel, served time in Colorado and was reportedly a member of the Brotherhood of Aryan Alliance. He was driving a vehicle that matched a similar description of a dark “boxy” car that was spotted in Clements’ neighborhood in Monument, Colo. at the time of the shooting.

According to Texas police, the suspect led them on a high-speed chase through two counties after being stopped in Montague and seriously wounding a deputy. The chase ended in Decatur, 100 miles outside of Dallas, when his Cadillac was struck by an 18-wheeler. After the suspect exited his car, he continued shooting and was hit by bullets when cops returned fire.

Doctors later said that the suspect was brain dead and is being kept on life support to potentially harvest his organs.

Days before he was shot dead at his home, Clements denied the request of a Saudi national convicted of false imprisonment and sexual assault to serve out the remainder of his prison sentence in Saudi Arabia.

Detectives investigating the murder were also investigating that as a possible lead as the manhunt for the 58-year-old's killer continued on Friday.

Just a week before being gunned down, Clements wrote a letter to convicted Saudi national Homaidan al-Turki, stating that he was denying his request to complete his sentence in his home country.

Al-Turki, whose company Al-Basheer Publications & Translations sold CDs of speeches by Islamic militant Anwar al-Awlaki, had complained during his trial that the prosecution was the result of a government conspiracy. Al-Awlaki was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in 2011.

In his letter to al-Turki, Clements cited the convict's refusal to participate in sex offender rehabilitation programs due to conflicts with his Islamic faith. As a result, Clements denied the requested transfer to Saudi Arabia.

Al-Turki was convicted in 2006 of the sexual assault of his Indonesian housekeeper. According to an affidavit, al-Turki and his wife kept their housekeeper as a virtual slave, allegedly paying her $2 per day and forcing her to sleep on a mattress in his basement.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Texas Shootout Suspect 'Evil Evan' Dies From His Wounds

Colorado Dept of Corrections(FORT WORTH, Texas) -- The man identified as the shooter who opened fired at police in Texas when they pulled him over during a traffic stop Thursday died from his wounds Friday.

Evan Spencer Ebel was involved in a high speed car chase and shootout in Texas, and police were eyeing for the murder of Colorado's prisons chief and a pizza deliveryman earlier in the week. Ebel is a paroled Colorado inmate and white supremacist gang member who signed his name "Evil Evan," sources tell ABC News.

Ebel shot one deputy three times and then started a 100 mph car chase across two Texas counties while continuing to shoot at police on Thursday. The chase ended when the driver was hit by an 18-wheel truck. Ebel emerged from the wreck and kept shooting at cops until he was cut down by return fire, according to Wise County Sheriff David Walker.

Ebel was flown to a hospital in Fort Worth and where he was put on life support. He was pronounced dead Friday. Police and medical examiners are performing an autopsy on Ebel's body.

Ebel, 28, has been in and out of jail the last 10 years, and was a part of the white supremacist prison gang 211 Crew, his friends told ABC News.

He had the word "hopeless" tattooed on his body and signed his name "Evil Evan."

Walker said Friday that police are still investigating whether Ebel committed the Tuesday murder of Colorado prison executive Tom Clements, and are searching through Ebel's vehicle for evidence that might tie him to the Colorado killing.

Clements, 58, was shot and killed at his home. Neighbors told police they saw a black, "box style" car in the neighborhood at the time of the murder. Ebel was driving a black Cadillac with Colorado license plates that match the "box style" description.

Walker said that there is no clear motive for the Texas shootout, but they believe the Cadillac was pulled over as part of a drug stop. They are looking into his affiliation with the prison gang 211 Crew to help explain why he was in Texas.

Police are also investigating whether Ebel was involved in the murder of a pizza delivery man in Denver on Sunday. Texas authorities said evidence found today in the suspect's car -- including a Domino's pizza uniform jacket and a cardboard pizza box -- may link him to the unsolved murder of Nathan Leon, 27, who was killed delivering pizza near Golden, Colo.

Friends of Ebel, who grew up in Wheat Ridge, Colo., told ABC News that he had been depressed and on edge for years. He had been in prison on an assortment of assault, robbery, and menacing charges dating back to 2005, according to jail records.

"He was depressed a lot," Ryan Arici, a friend of Ebel's from Wheat Ridge, told ABC News. "And he was a dark person. His walls were painted black and his windows were blacked out."

Ebel dropped out of school, where he had been in a special education program for "severely impacted" students, and friends said he "lost it" when his sister, Marin Ebel, was killed in a car crash as a teenager in 2004. The death set off a string of criminal behaviors and jail stints for Ebel.

"Everyone was always afraid of Evan. Even the hardest kids were afraid of Evan," one friend told ABC.

Ricky Alengi, another friend from Wheat Ridge, said that Ebel had been doing better upon his latest release from prison. Alengi said he was shocked to find out about the shootout in Texas.

"I thought he was getting better," Alengi said. "He was writing books in prison. His mom and I were going to see him soon."

His father, attorney Jack Ebel, once testified on his behalf in front of the Colorado legislature about prison conditions for mentally ill inmates. He did not immediately return calls for comment.

His mother, Jody Mangue, who now lives in Costa Rica, was distraught over the news of her son, friends said.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Driver in Texas Shootout Possibly Linked to Colorado Prison Chief Murder

Colorado Dept of Corrections(FORT WORTH, Texas) -- A high speed chase and shootout that spanned two Texas counties and ended with the death of the driver Thursday may be connected to the murder of Colorado's prisons chief earlier this week, police said.

A suspect driving a black Cadillac with Colorado license plates shot at an officer several times during a traffic stop and took off. The suspect continued to fire at pursuing officers while driving at speeds that exceeded 100 mph, police said a news conference.

The suspect, who police have been unable to identify, wasn't stopped until his vehicle slammed into an 18-wheel tractor trailer. He came out of the car with a gun and began firing again at police who cut him down with return fire, police said.

"He wasn't planning on being taken alive. He was planning on hurting somebody," an officer said during the news conference.

Although treated at two hospitals, the suspect was "legally deceased," police said.

Authorities said that Colorado investigators are on their way to Texas to determine whether the suspect is connected to the murder of Colorado prison chief Tom Clements. Clements was killed at his home Tuesday by an unknown assailant.

"Do we suspect it is related [to the Colorado killing]? It may be," Wise County Sheriff David Walker said. "I believe the description of the car in Colorado is a box-style black car" that was identified as possibly a being a Lincoln. "This is a box-style car with Colorado plates."

Police said that the driver of the black Cadillac was pulled over by highway patrol officers in Montague County, Texas, when he began firing on the officer who pulled him over. The officer was hit several times in the chest, but was protected by his vest. He was also grazed in the head.

The injured officer alerted other law enforcement to the driver, who then engaged in a rolling shootout with deputies in his pursuit through Montague and Wise counties.

The suspect was eventually hit by a truck on a Texas highway, when he exited and then continued shooting at sheriff's deputies. He was shot multiple times and taken to a nearby hospital before being airlifted to John Peters Hospital in Fort Worth. Police said the suspect is legally dead but is being kept on life support to possibly harvest his organs.

Authorities tell ABC News they are also looking into whether the suspect may be involved in the killing of a Domino’s pizza driver in Denver.

Authorities say evidence found today in the suspect’s car -- including a Domino’s pizza uniform jacket and a cardboard pizza box -- may link the suspect to the unsolved murder of 27-year-old pizza delivery man Nathan Leon, according to three law enforcement sources who did not want to be identified because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

Leon’s body was found Sunday in a ditch in Golden, Colorado.  A father of three, Leon was shot multiple times.

Detectives investigating Clements' murder seem to have ruled out the possibility that he was a victim of random violence and believe that he was specifically targeted.

"Is it possible this was random? Absolutely," County Undersheriff Paula Presley told ABC News Thursday. "Then again you have to look at what the motive would have been if this was a random shooting. At this point, there's nothing that leads us in that direction."

"It appears at this point in time that Mr. Clements was obviously the target of this homicide," Presley said.

Clements, 58, was shot Tuesday night at his home in an upscale neighborhood in Monument, Colorado.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio