An exasperated Manhattan middle-school teacher got so enraged when her students wouldn’t stop talking that she fantasized aloud about stabbing them, schools investigators said.
Former Collaborative Academy of Science Technology and Language Arts teacher Jacqueline Baffoni allegedly made the comments in class toward the end of last school year — around the time she was informed she might be jettisoned as a probationary teacher.
“I feel like stabbing some of these kids — I have a knife here,” the teacher said, a student in the eighth-grade class told probers from the Office of the Special Commissioner of Investigation (SCI).
Another student said the teacher, who kept a blade in her desk for slicing fruit, added, “I have a knife in this room, and I wish I could stab them!”
Baffoni’s remark was allegedly aimed at a group of unruly kids in the back of the Lower East Side classroom.
The alleged outburst came a day after Baffoni’s supervisors warned her in writing that they were considering “whether your services as a probationer be discontinued” at the end of the school year.
It was unclear why she was given that warning.
One staffer told the SCI that the letter “might have prompted” the teacher’s comments. Baffoni was fired in June 2012, before the SCI probe was completed in mid-October.
In an e-mail to The Post, Baffoni characterized the claims against her as “false allegations” and “slanderous rumors” and insisted that she had been dedicated to her students.
“I would never wish to cause harm to any of my children,” she wrote.
Baffoni’s ex-roommate also said the alleged threat was so out of character for the teacher that even if she did say them, she was likely just venting out loud.
“I can understand her saying something like that in the heat of the moment while being stressed out,” said Tracy Wu, who lived with Baffoni in lower Manhattan for two years.
“She is incredibly dedicated to her job and to her kids — probably more than she should be,” she added. “For some of the kids’ birthdays, she holds barbecues . . . and she spends her own money on them. She really makes them feel like family.”
In fact, before the incident, Baffoni had openly gushed about her students online — and even sought to provide them with more books to read. She raised nearly $400 worth of novels for her 90 students via the Web site for the organization Donors Choose.
“Many teachers may tell this tall tale, but I really do teach the best students in New York City!” Baffoni wrote for the launch of the fund-raising effort in 2010.
Investigators said that they couldn’t reach the teacher for an interview but that she responded to an e-mail to say she no longer worked for the Department of Education.
DOE officials said Baffoni started teaching in 2008 and came to the CASTLE middle school the next year.
She had yet to receive tenure before being let go.