Michelle J. Dohm

Now Michelle J. Dohm, the sixth-grade teacher found guilty of sending the bomb threats during a seven-month period, gets her chance to experience the same thing.

Frederick County Circuit Court Judge Julie Stevenson Solt on Tuesday sentenced Dohm, 42, to spend nine months behind bars in the Frederick County Adult Detention Center. Once released, Dohm will serve nine months of home detention.

"This crime makes no sense," Solt said.

Dohm was a schoolteacher, a Boy Scouts leader; she taught Sunday school. Until she was convicted in April, the mother of two had never been in trouble.

"Why did she do this?" the judge said to a standing-room-only crowd of about 70.

Dohm did not budge Tuesday from her claims of innocence even though Solt said the court was convinced of her guilt.

"(It is) a tragedy that any child felt threatened or anxious," Dohm said. It is a tragedy that some "believe I'm responsible."

"I'm no threat at all," she said.

Relatives of the threatened boys said Dohm has been brazen since her conviction.

Candace Tokar is the mother of victim Dennis Tokar, 12 at the time of the threats. Since the conviction, Dohm has intimidated the children by approaching them at ballgames, Tokar said.

"She was still going out and parading around, even after she was found guilty," Tokar said. "She continues to play her games at the expense of all her victims. She has not accepted responsibility."

Wanda Routzahn, Landon's mother, called Dohm "calculating and devious" for trying to place the blame for the threats on Landon and other boys.

"Her actions handcuffed the community of Thurmont and the surrounding towns," Routzahn said.

Echoing Tokar, Routzahn urged Solt to be mindful of the April massacre at Virginia Tech, where university officials were stymied in efforts to get mental health treatment for the gunman.

Dohm's actions could be a precursor to violence, Routzahn said, adding that teachers should be held to higher standards.

Throughout the two-hour proceeding, Dohm showed no emotion.

She kept her gaze away from State's Attorney Charlie Smith and co-counsel Lindell K. Angel. She pressed her 5-foot-1-inch, 114-pound frame against defense attorney Thomas C. Morrow's side.

Morrow said seeing a mother who professes her innocence separated from her children made Dohm's case one of the most difficult in his 31-year career.

Tokar's five children are still afraid.

"My children won't go out after dark unattended," she said. "When they hear something at night, they're terrified she has come to blow them up."

While on five years of probation, Dohm must stay away from her victims, their schools and Thurmont athletic events, according to Solt's orders. She also must abstain from alcohol and obtain mental health treatment as prescribed.

Breaking those rules could put Dohm in a state prison. Should she violate any condition of probation, Solt may impose 8 1/2 years beyond her current sentence.

The Frederick County School Board will consider today an administration recommendation to fire Dohm, according to the Associated Press. She has been on unpaid leave from Thurmont Middle School since her arrest in December 2005.

Smith said assertions by Dohm and her supporters that she had been framed for the crimes "are absolutely, unequivocally without merit."

"That's nonsense," he said.

Forensic evidence, including handwriting analyses of notes and examinations of fibers from postage stamps found in searches of her home, tied Dohm to the crimes.

"Ms. Dohm was the one who committed these wrongs," Smith said. "As a teacher, she was expected to safeguard the children, not victimize them. Committing crimes (against) children is reprehensible."