Defaced photographs mailed to two school officials

By JONATHAN M. BELL
Staff writer
The Saturday mail delivery brought more than the usual bills to Plano Independent School District trustees Gary Base and Duncan Webb. Each received a letter containing "terroristic threats," according to police reports.

Carl Duke, Plano Police Department public information officer, said the mailings contained copies of a newspaper article that included pictures of the two men with what appeared to be targets drawn on their faces.

Base and Webb could not be reached for comment Friday, and PISD had no official comment on the letters. Carole Greisdorf, special assistant to the superintendent, said the incident was referred to the police.

Investigating officer Cindy Bennet was not available for comment Thursday.

Duke said there is no record of any specific suspects in this case, but he added the names of anyone investigators might be interested in would have come from the victims.

"They (the investigators) ask the people receiving the letters if there's anyone they can think of" who might have sent them, he said.

Local education activist Timothy Soh said he was called in for questioning about the letters, but he stressed he had nothing to do with the alleged threats.

"I never sent anything to their homes," he said. "The only things I send are directly to the school district, and those are things on connected math and that sort of thing."

Connected math is a controversial math teaching method adopted by the district that Soh has opposed.

Soh said the detective who questioned him was very nice and only wanted information.

"She was very nice to me, I must say," he said. "There was no threatening. She just wanted to find out what was going on."

Soh said he was told he is not the only suspect in the case.

"She (Officer Bennet) told me they have another suspect whom she's more concerned about," he said.

The PISD's Greisdorf said threats against board members have been made in the past but those incidents were not necessarily connected to this case.

Contact staff writer Jonathan M. Bell at 972-424-4585, Ext. 1265, or by e-mail at jonathan_m_bell@hotmail.com.