A judge tore into city investigators Thursday for a shoddy probe that cost a teacher his job at a Manhattan school for kids with emotional and legal problems.
The decision means Charles Bryant can reclaim his teaching license and possibly get his job back at Public School 35M.
He was in his first year as a teacher there after nearly 20 years working as a teacher's aide with troubled students at Rikers Island and a Manhattan hospital.
"I don't know whether to jump in the sky yet, but I'm really overjoyed," Bryant told the Daily News. "I love teaching - it's my calling; it's what I do."
In her decision, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Emily Goodman slammed the Department of Education's Office of Special Investigation for a one-sided report on the encounter between Bryant, 44, and Charles Cherry, 16.
Cherry said he got into a fight with Bryant and the teacher punched him and poked him in the eye.
The school's principal took the word of Cherry and three pals - and the Education Department investigator based his findings largely on the principal's statement, Goodman said.
Meanwhile, the investigator ignored a police captain's finding that the student's story "did not hold up," the judge wrote.
"It is extraordinary that the investigator could base his findings on the principal's statement when, according to his own report, she was 'unsure' of what Cherry said," Goodman wrote. "Such uncertainty as the basis for ending a man's productive life shocks the conscience."
A spokeswoman for the city Law Department said it was "disappointed" with the decision.
Bryant said the October 2008 clash started when Cherry walked past him and smacked his head.
"Instead of going after the kid, he went to the principal's office," said Bryant's lawyer, Stephen Hans. "She told him she would take care of it."
Stepping out of the school for a break, Bryant ran into the student again and said the principal was looking for him - only to get walloped, he said.
"I got worked over really badly," he said. "It was unprovoked."
He lost his job, and worked in security and with the Census Bureau while he sued.
"When I lost that job, I lost a lot," he said. "I had a good position and I loved that job."
Cherry could not be reached for comment.
Bryant said in court papers the teen was arrested and charged with weapons possession after the incident.
The police didn't believe the student's story, but the principal and the DOE did.
Without work protections, this teacher would be without recourse - both for his job and his reputation.
You have to understand that for every teacher who ultimately "wins," there are probably four or five who do not. "Tenure" is better than nothing, but administrative law is such a mess and is so flouted by school districts that "tenure" ultimately is useless in protecting them. School districts merely rig the proceedings, knowing few teachers have the resources to fight. Few people outside of education, and few people IN education, really understand the mess that is known as administrative law and how it is flouted to benefit school districts.
ReplyDeleteAnd soon even these protections will be gone and we will rely upon the good will and kindness of strangers with hostile feelings for teachers like Rhee and Klein.
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