Gym teacher arrested for alleged knife threat

(New York-WABC, March 16, 2006) (WABC) -- A local gym teacher is under arrest and accused of threatening two of his students with a knife when they refused to exercise.

The teacher -- Mark Omeltchenko -- works at Aviation High School in the Sunnyside section of Queens.

According to the Queens district attorney's office, Omeltchenko -- a teacher at Aviation High School -- is accused of putting a kitchen knife to the forearms of two teen girls. Officials say neither girl was injured.

Omeltchenko was being charged with menacing, criminal possession of a weapon, endangering the welfare of a child and harassment. He was being held pending an arraignment, likely to take place Friday.

The suspect's father, Bill Omeltchenko, said his son's actions had to have been an idle threat: "He would never hurt anybody."

A Department of Education spokesman said Mark Omeltchenko, who had a military instructor guest teaching his class for the day, was being reassigned pending the result of an investigation.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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