A San Jose teacher who coughed her way to viral infamy has been charged with assault—but authorities have yet to track her down to make an arrest.
Nancy Nordland became a household name after a grainy surveillance video captured her on June 12 willfully hacking on a baby’s face at a South Side Yogurtland.
Outrage ensued once the baby’s mom, Mireya Mora, went public a day later with the story on the local ABC News affiliate.
A Change.org petition demanded Nordland’s firing as TV news thrust the incident into national headlines. Before anyone knew Nordland’s name, the San Jose Police Department asked for the public’s help identifying the woman shown in security footage sporting an all-white outfit and short blonde ’do.
It wasn’t long before websleuths zeroed in on a suspect.
Nordland, they learned, worked as a special ed instructor at Oak Grove School District, where some parents came out of the woodwork with claims that she mistreated students.
Then, radio silence. One week turned into several, with no update from SJPD or the school district. At this point, it’s been a couple months since a story’s been written about the infamous notorious cougher.
What we do know is that an arrest warrant was filed a month ago by the DA, accusing 65-year-old Nordland of committing “a violent injury on” year-old “Mora Doe.”
Aidan Welsh, the prosecutor assigned to the case, told Fly that Nordland’s still on the lam. Alas, Fly’s calls to Nordland went straight to voicemail. A knock on the door of her San Jose home went unanswered.
Welsh urged tipsters to give SJPD Det. Dan Bowman a heads-up at 408.277.4161.
“Our office takes this seriously,” Welsh added. “Even if we were not in the middle of a pandemic, the defendant’s actions would be unacceptable. It is now more important than ever to treat each other with compassion and exercise personal responsibility.”
So, there you have it.
Nordland’s still out there—hopefully out of the coughing distance of anyone’s baby.
SJI redefines “Punching up”
Pultizer.
Agree on charge!
Babies have immunity to coronavirus.
Minimal health risk.
Case dismissed.
the fact that she did it during a pandemic is even further proof this was a violent assult,her intentions are very clear,she walked over to the stroller lifted (or removed) her mask, leaned in and coughed directly into the stroller,to me this is aggravated assault, and as we know now, a flight risk
Agreed. She should face trial and if convicted punishment. We either have law and order, or we don’t. I personally would like to have Law & Order.
Doesn’t sound like the police or the DA’s investigators are putting a lot of time, effort, and energy into locating this woman. How sophisticated can she be about hiding? She has to eat and have a place to sleep, and must have run out of cash by now so tracking her by credit card purchases or ATM withdrawals should be easy. Have the police and DA investigators spoken to the parents of the special ed students about their allegations against Ms. Nordland involving their children? Sounds like that could lead to more charges. A lot of important questions seemingly left unasked in this follow up story.
From public internet site. Mylife.
AKA:Nancy Katherine Nordland, Nancy K Roberts, Nancy K Norland, Nancy K Nordland, Nancy Roberts, Nancy Robert
Associates:Karl Nordland, Erik William Nordland, Brady L Nordland, Ursula E Roberts, Todd Jefferson Nordland, Julie Ann Tyran, Claire Amkraut, Michael James Roberts, James Evan Roberts
Work: Substitute Teacher at Washoe County Schools
School: Add Info
Summary: Nancy Nordland is 65 years old and was born on 06/29/1955. Previous to Nancy’s current city of Neskowin, OR, Nancy Nordland lived in Palo Alto CA, Los Altos CA and Santa Clara CA. Nancy Roberts, Nancy Robert, Nancy Katherine Nordland, Nancy K Roberts, Nancy K Norland, and Yogurtland Karen are some of the alias or nicknames that Nancy has used. Nancy is known for intentionally coughing in a baby’s face to infect the baby with Covid-19. Nancy’s present occupation is listed as a substitute teacher at washoe county and Oak Grove schools. We have lots of information about Nancy: religious views are listed as Christian, ethnicity is Caucasian, and political affiliation is Republican. Nancy is now married. Hobbies include ice cream sundae buffets, acting like an immature ogre and pretending to be a caring person. Nancy has many family members and associates who include Michael Roberts, Claire Amkraut, Julie Tyran, Brady Nordland and Todd Nordland.
Just Anon for Now – Are you enjoying yourself?
Nancy Nordland is a victim of the coronavirus scare and the COVID-19 hysteria.
The baby is fine.
Sanctuary for Nancy!
Kate Steinle is NOT fine. Bambi Larson is NOT fine. Prop 47 is Criminal Enabling.
Nancy Nordland is NOT a criminal.
#SanctuaryforNancy
Thank you for standing up Ms. Nordland, SJ Kulak. It’s a shame that an ordinary citizen would be put on blast for simply deliberately coughing into the face of an infant during a pandemic. Where does SJI get off, bullying this poor defenseless woman who assaulted an infant to retaliate against a mother. SJI is always sticking its nose into other peoples business, like why can’t they just ignore this poor woman alone, it’s not like this story has developed except for the news that she’s on the lam and refusing to turn herself in, but comeeeeeee onnnnnnnnnn it’s like SJI never “punches up” except for all of that investigative journalism they’ve done that’s led to the resignations and criminal investigations of various public officials, but maybe they could switch things up and just strictly write from my perspective.
https://abc13.com/baby-dies-from-coronavirus-corpus-christi-nuces-county-death-covid/6311428/
6-week-old baby boy dies from COVID-19 in Corpus Christi
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/23/health/pennsylvania-infant-death-covid-autopsy/index.html
A 26-day-old baby tests positive for Covid-19 following autopsy in Pennsylvania
Coronavirus: Baby aged 13 days dies with Covid-19
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-5309764
And that took all of 30 seconds to find out.
Mr Iguana,
Your sarcasm needs a bit more crispness. This lady will get what is coming to her, through due process. However this public pillorying through the SJI and the Mercury is voyeuristic sadism. She is a no-body who may or may not have done an illegal thing, I was not there. Certainly the police, the press have made it priority one to punish her to the full extent of the law. We shall see.
However running this pornography on the weekly and doxing her family is beneath all of our dignity.
It is not “punching up”, as Ms Wadsworth loves to claim, in any sense of the word. It was mob justice, which has now degraded to the grotesque.
I suggest you ask yourself why you get so excited to consume this type of journalism.
> And that took all of 30 seconds to find out.
Harvey:
The baby is fine.
Nancy didn’t have coronavirus.
Baby mama didn’t have coronavirus, even though SHE wasn’t wearing a mask.
There was NO crime. Only lynch mob hysteria.
And that took all of 20 seconds to find out.
Mr. Kulak, you make a good point. I agree with you that it’s not healthy for individuals to seek emotional or psychological satisfaction from harm to others, and there do seem to be increasing examples of the public rushing to judgement or acts being blown out of proportion. But part of dealing with this pandemic as a society is learning what is acceptable behavior and what is not acceptable behavior, and the media plays a critical role in that process. This woman knew that she was doing something that was not considered acceptable, but she did it because she had a clear intent to cause harm. I really agree with much of what you said – I think everyone deserves forgiveness, but they need to admit their mistakes first, and based on her at-large status and her husband’s comments it doesn’t seem like that has happened.
Mr. SJOUSTIDETHBUBBLE, you don’t think it’s a crime to cough in someone’s face? Can you spit in their face, too? If I spat in your face, would it be a crime only if you got sick? What if I knew I was sick but you didn’t get sick? What if I had a drawer with a hundred handguns, and one of them had a bullet in it, and I picked one out randomly, pointed it at the child, and pulled the trigger, but the chamber was empty! That’s not a crime because he never got shot, right? The baby is fine. The gun didn’t have a bullet in it.
Her husband’s comments, Iguana? Where did you hear or see them? Have you got a link you cou,d share? Thanks in advance.
JMO, Robert Salonga got in touch him.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/08/12/fired-san-jose-teacher-charged-with-coughing-on-kid-at-yogurtland-still-sought/
Mr Iguana
I am assuming from the given name in your user name, you are male. I will take that one step further and assume you are married.
Now, imagine your wife of 35-45 years is being publicly flogged by the police, the prosecutor, multiple news outlets, and petition sites; possibly accompanied with death threats; has verifiably lost her job, and now your entire family names and backgrounds propagated through the internet. A job your wife likely loves, with low salary and status, but, in her mind at least, the satisfaction of helping special needs kids. All from a 1-2 minute series of events that have been circulated in edited fashion, no audio, with the only context supplied by the complainant who is admittingly mind reading your wife’s intention deduced from the fact there was Spanish spoken during the event.
Imagine then, some “reporter” from said outlets acquires your personal number, cold calls you and asks you the equivalent of the “So when did you stop beating your wife” question. Frankly his response was shockingly staid compared to how I would have responded under the circumstances.
How do you think you would have reacted?
What is interestingly omitted from this piece of journalism is the fact that the charge was not assault, or felony assault, but misdemeanor assault. For those not in the know, a misdemeanor is defined as a minor wrongdoing. Had this been classified as felon assault, the perpetrator would still be eligible for felony parole. It is not a surprise that Detective Dan isn’t calling in SWAT to haul her ass in. The reaction of the public and the intensity of the reporting would be proportional to guilty verdict of attempted murder.
While I don’t know the definition of “Fake News”, I will hold my position that this is clearly not “punching up”, nor is it coverage equivalent to the crime, it is more akin to rage-porn. Being used by the police to distract the mob from a string of leadership failures coming out of the SJPD, a chance for Mr Welsh to get a few quotes in the paper, and to sate the blood-lust of this audience.
Thanks again.
Thanks, Iguana.
The fact that Ms. Norland has a husband begs the question—is he an accessory after the fact and/or guilty of obstructing justice?
It still seems to me that SJPD considers this a very low priority case.
Kulak: given the reports of other parents about how Ms. Norland treated their special ed kids, I find it impossible to accept your Pollyanna-ish hypothetical about Ms. Norland. Even if the baby was too close to Ms. Norland, the baby certainly didn’t put itself there. But Ms. Norland was a typically cowardly bully, who chose to cough on the innocent child and exit rapidly, rather than confront the mother. Ms. Norland should not be allowed to teach children. Any certificates or licenses she has should be suspended immediately, pending her providing reasons why they should be reinstated.
Again, I have not said one word to defend this women. So your argument is specious.
My criticisms are with people on this blog who think they know everything about what happened, this woman, her husband, and are enjoying their humiliation far too much. I am criticizing the cheap use of these events by rags like this for click baiting rage porn. I am criticizing the police for tossing this women to the wolves to throw the barbarians at the gate down a different path. I am criticizing the prosecutor for kicking the dirt off a dead case to get his name in the paper.
You don’t know what happened, you assume you do. You don’t know this woman, you assume you do. You don’t know her husband, you assume you do. And your assumptions are based from highly biased and motivated sources.
Let her be accused, charged, defended, and then judged. If she is guilty she will serve her time. That is the best we can hope for.
Any thing less is barbarism.