Police say a woman walked into her old high school in Milwaukee and said she was a substitute teacher. She was not. She got a classroom anyway, police say.
Amy Jones is 23. Prosecutors in Milwaukee County have charged her with several felonies. One count is for pretending to be a public employee. The rest are for exposing a child to harmful descriptions. That means talking about sex and other adult things in front of kids.
It happened on Sept. 24 at Rufus King International High School. Jones once went to school there.
The charging documents say she had been inside the school about a week before.
Jones later told detectives how she got in on Sept. 24. She said she asked a student if she could sneak in. The student told her which door to use. She said she blended in with the students and got past security.
Inside, she said, she heard staff in the main office talking about the company that sends the school its substitutes. She told a secretary she was a sub from that company. She signed the sign-in sheet as "Amy Jones sub."
A teacher knew her face. Jones told him she got a job as a substitute and did not know where to go. He sent her to the head secretary.
The timing helped her. Eight teachers were out that day. Only seven had a sub. The principal told police Jones "got lucky because there happened to be an unfilled position."
A real teacher set up the class with Jones for about 20 minutes. One student said she seemed normal and nice at first. Then the teacher left the room.
Students told police what came next. They said Jones cursed and screamed at them. They said she used racial slurs and split the class up by race and gender. They said she made fun of kids for their weight, their looks and their money.
A 16-year-old boy told police she called one student "fat boy." He said she asked a girl if she wanted to be "a stripper or a hooker."
Students said she asked which kids were gay and which were virgins. The same 16-year-old said she told two white boys "they were the type of people to start school shootings."
Students said she talked about smoking weed, stealing and going to jail. They said she bragged about having felonies. They said she played rap music very loud. She asked if anyone had a vape or weed because the class was so lame, students said.
One student's dad works at the school. Students said Jones warned that student not to snitch on her.
Students recorded video of her. At least one recording went to police.
After class, students went to staff. The principal, Doreen Badillo, went to the room and told Jones to leave. Jones was walked out of the building.
Badillo called the company that sends the subs. It said Jones did not work there.
Detectives talked to Jones on Sept. 30. She knew why. "Yeah because I was impersonating a teacher," she said, according to the charging documents.
She said she had no training as a teacher. She said she acted differently once the real teacher left.
Jones told police she went to the school "because she was bored." She said she hates kids and just wanted to mess around.
She also admitted to a "birds and the bees talk" with the students. "It was not appropriate," she told the detective.
Then she said she was "going to be famous." The detective said "infamous" was more like it. The charging documents say Jones got excited. She snapped her fingers and danced.
Milwaukee Public Schools is running its own probe. In a letter, the principal said Milwaukee police officers assigned to the school were called in that day. The district's Title IX coordinator was also told. That office handles sex discrimination and harassment complaints.
The district says it has put "supportive measures" in place for the students. It did not say what those are.
In a note to families, the principal said the school will keep taking "all appropriate action." She said the goal is to keep the school "a safe and welcoming place."
The district would not say how substitutes check in at its schools.
Jones was set to make her first court appearance on Tuesday, Oct. 6.
Everyone is presumed innocent until proved otherwise.
