Aviation H.S. Teacher Charged With Menacing Students
BY JOHN TOSCANO

Aviation High School in Long Island City

In a bizarre case at Aviation High School in Long Island City, a Queens gym teacher known for being friendly and cracking jokes, suddenly changed character last Thursday and allegedly threatened two teenage female students with a knife after they refused to take part in a class exercise drill.

A third complainant, a 17-year-old autistic male student, also charged the teacher pointed the knife at him and placed him in a headlock. None of the students were injured.

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced that the teacher, Mark Omeltchenko, 46, of Bayside was subsequently arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on 10 counts of menacing, harassment, endangering the welfare of children and possession of a weapon.

Judge Alex Zigman set no bail, released Omeltchenko on his own recognizance, and adjourned the case to April 25 for further action.

A Department of Education spokesman said Omeltchenko, a teacher for 15 years earning $73,000 a year, was further charged by the department with corporal punishment and then reassigned. He was said to have had no previous incidents at the school.

According to Brown, the criminal complaint against Omeltchenko states that at about 10:15 a.m. on March 16, the teacher was conducting a gym class at the school at 45-30 36th St. At one point he instructed the students to do exercises.

According to press reports, Omeltchenko became frustrated when the two girls, 14 and 15 years old, refused to participate in a cardiovascular workout conducted by a visiting military instructor.

The district attorney, who did not identify the two students by name, said when they refused to do the exercise, "it is alleged that the defendant went to his office and returned with a kitchen knife which he placed against their arms with the dull side facing down and rubbed the blade back and forth while saying: "Go or I'll flip it," allegedly referring to the cutting edge of the knife.

The district attorney said it was "similarly charged that during the same gym class, the defendant pointed the knife at the neck of a third student, a 17-year-old boy with autism, while grabbing him and placing him in a head lock."

Brown did not give any details about what precipitated the action against the male student.

Reporters covering the story caught up with former students now working in a fast-food restaurant near the school. They said Omeltchenko was known for telling jokes, was laid back and not a strict disciplinarian.

One of them, Dwight Ford, 21, upon hearing about the alleged incidents, exclaimed: "Mr. O? Wow, I'm surprised. He was always the coolest teacher. He was the funny one. I wouldn't expect it from him."

Another former student, Stephan Mitchell, 21, said of Omeltchenko, "He was a cool dude. He was the teacher everyone wanted to have."

Bill Omeltchenko, 76, the teacher's father, also came to his defense, saying, "He would never, ever hurt a kid."