photo by: Nick Krug

Lawrence's South Middle School is pictured Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017.

A former middle school teacher arrested after reportedly showing up and causing a disturbance at the school briefly appeared in municipal court Friday.

Chris Cobb, 57, of Lawrence, and his attorney, Nicholas David, requested that Cobb’s proceedings be pushed back, and his hearing was rescheduled for July 13.

David indicated that he was in the process of pursuing a diversion agreement for Cobb.

Cobb previously failed to appear for his last scheduled hearing in April.

Cobb, who taught sixth-grade social studies at South Middle School, resigned from his job in fall 2016 following an investigation into allegedly racist comments that he had made in class. He has since denied wrongdoing, and the school district has never released details about the incident.

The afternoon of March 29, Cobb, seemingly drunk, came to the school’s front office and began swearing and making threatening comments to staff, the school district alleged at the time. The incident was confined to the office, but it did prompt the school to go on lockdown for about 10 minutes.

Lawrence police arrested Cobb at the school on suspicion of misdemeanor charges of criminal trespassing, disorderly conduct and interference with duties of a police officer. He was released from jail within a few hours and was charged in Lawrence Municipal Court.

Cobb had no prior criminal record in Douglas County.