Local School district unethical actions

Imagine this is you:

You’re a Long Island public school teacher. 15 years of dedication and commitment to your students and your district. Your attendance is impeccable, with only four sick days used over the 15 years. Your file is empty, except for years of outstanding teacher evaluations. Your students perform well on Regents exams. The school, students, and community ask you to volunteer your time, money and skills for a variety of purposes and functions: you never turn them down. You spend many summers building gardens around the school property, designing and creating a half-acre enclosed courtyard to honor 9-11 victims. Your room, #122 is kept immaculate, with dozens of beautiful green plants, fish tanks and a student-created Finding Nemo mural. This comfortable, safe environment is inviting to students (yours, and others) who like to come in, relax, talk or read during free time. There’s laughter and tears alike. Students who ask for a snack, money for lunch, or a bottle of water are always given, without question. You truly care for all the kids, and you hope they return the respect and admiration, but it’s not a requirement. That’s the job.

During difficult times, you deliver groceries to some of your neediest kids, you donate money to help bury teens killed in tragic accidents, or families displaced by fire. You planted several memorial trees around the campus to honor lost children and teachers.

You coached sports teams, volunteered to help other teams, acted as the Public Address Announcer for the football and basketball programs, creating a professional atmosphere and quality sound while promoting sportsmanship and respect. You helped to create Homecoming festivities, Pep Rallies, Trick-Or-Treat Street and so many other school events. When time permitted, you took on various roles such as class advisor, club advisor and National Honor Society advisor (as appointed by the Principal).

While not being one to need recognition, or commendations, you can’t help but notice that the Teacher’s Union, and the upper District Administration don’t recognize your efforts. In fact, the Union does not appreciate your (unpaid) efforts and immaculate attendance record at all. You’re not a Union Rah-Rah type. One Union rep called you a “lousy Union guy”. Eh, that’s ok. Except for one thing: a time comes when you need Union and District help, and they turn their back on you and actually turn ON you.

One day, a student (from your previous year’s 9th grade class), complains to the principal that she feels uncomfortable and awkward (one of those trendy, clichéd words) in your presence. Note: she was no longer your student, though she was a regular visitor, coming by your room every day at 7:00 a.m. along with five or ten other kids seeking a quiet spot, a piece of junk food, or time and space to wake up and prepare for the day. All were welcome, and all by their own free will. The generic, vague complaint came without warning and somehow quickly escalated to a sexual harassment complaint, though the specifications do not fit the description of sexual harassment. Your world crashed in seconds. You’re told to stay away from the school and students, to not speak to anyone, about anything, and to meet with the Union President immediately. You’re not allowed to speak to your supervisors or Principal. You find out much later that the principal was told to stay out of it, to not speak to you at all. In fact, he was left in the dark regarding the matter. For you, the fear, confusion and anxiety are real. No one from the school comes to your aid or defense. Rumors become a groundswell throughout the district.

The days tick by while the district performs it’s investigation, which mostly turns up mistruths, exaggerations and misrepresentations by the complainant and two supposed “witnesses”. The district produces NO hard evidence. The worst is yet to come. You’re told you have to see the district-appointed psychiatrist for a Fitness-For-Duty exam. In approximately 75 minutes this doctor determines that you are unfit for duty, and have all sorts of mental deficiencies, and you present a danger to the school community. What?! 15 years of outstanding performance and now, all of a sudden, you’re unfit and unsafe? This process is called a “913 Exam”. The law allows that you can select the psychiatrist, though the district does not offer you this option, and the Union never mentions it. You ask the Union to provide you an attorney to accompany you on this exam. The Union declines saying “you don’t need one to be there”. In fact, the Union doesn’t allow you to contact the Union attorney. You are flying without a parachute. The psych exam consists of an intense interrogation, but includes NO standardized tests and NO interviews with colleagues or supervisors. Medically speaking, his “opinion” is neither legitimate nor binding, yet it is the ONE tool districts use to dismiss teachers. An unfit teacher can’t be allowed to teach. That being said, why aren’t “unfit” teachers given the opportunity for accommodations and improvement, as allowed by law? An “unfit” teacher is instead run through the disciplinary gauntlet called a “3020a proceeding”. The district hires the psychiatrist AND the hearing officer who will try your case. Again, the Union is disinterested and offers minimal representation during the preliminary hearings. Desperate for help, you fire the Union and hire a private attorney for $25,000. Turns out he knew nothing about school law, 913’s or 3020a’s, but that’s another story, unfortunately.

So, five months down the line, you report to District offices for the first session of your 3020a hearing, accompanied by your attorney. Your attorney, by the way, informs you that he will need another $100,000 in legal fees to represent you throughout the 3020a hearings. Terrified, nervous, anxious and depressed, the District surprises you with an offer of severance with your resignation in lieu of the hearing process (which would have taken several weeks to complete). Upon the (poor) advice of your attorney, you resign, in spite of the fact that the district’s case was weaker than weak and based on circumstantial evidence, mistruths and one ridiculous non-medical finding of “unfit”. It’s important to note that dismissal is NOT the only possible outcome from a 3020a, but the extreme fear and uncertainty and anxiety, created by the disciplinary process, is paralyzing to the accused teacher. Not a good time to make decisions.

Too young to retire, you anticipated the possibility of teaching elsewhere. What you and your attorney didn’t realize is that a bright red scarlet letter was permanently ironed on your chest. No district would ever give you a chance to teach again. The damage was done. Sure enough, dozens of applications and interviews attended, yet nothing materializes. In interviews for jobs, districts were thrilled to know of your availability; however, one phone call to your former district’s administrative office and any chance of you getting hired were squashed. You don’t know what information was provided by your district, but it surely did NOT help you get a job. The law provides that the referral only has to confirm dates of service and job description. Anyway, no valid excuse was ever given to you for the dozens of rejections, just a simple “we changed our mind”. To this day, you can’t even get a job as a hall monitor.

Months pass by and your fate is becoming all too clear, and painful. You hire a private investigator who tracks down the original complainant and the two “witnesses”. All three retract their statements, entirely. In fact, all three state that you were an outstanding teacher, kind, generous, helpful etc. While these new statements prove beyond any doubt that the original allegations were untrue, the district declines to consider this new evidence. You hire more lawyers, pay another $75,000+ to pursue various legal angles. Nothing works due to time limitations, technicalities or maybe a legal system too backed up, too busy to dig a little deeper? To this day, you’ve never spoken to any judge directly, or represented yourself face to face to anyone that had any authority to help you or save your career.

Imagine this is you. Except it’s not. It’s me. My name is Guy Santostefano. I was a teacher at Middle Country Central School District (MCCSD). And this is what I learned after considerable study and investigation:

· Long Island school districts are predominantly counseled by TWO law firms: Guercio & Guercio, or Ingerman-Smith.

· 45 districts, from Montauk to Valley Stream, hire ONE psychiatrist for the fitness-for-duty exams: Dr. Randall Solomon of Port Jefferson. It seems there are no other qualified psychiatrists from Eastern Long Island to the Queens border.

· Nearly 100 teacher cases in the past ten years have been sent to Dr. Solomon for evaluation. He earns upwards of $17,000/case.

· Most important teacher discipline cases are handled by private firms, as teachers lose faith in the Union lawyers. Very few firms, however, are experienced in teacher discipline cases.

It is quite clear that many superintendents on Long Island (members of the same superintendent’s association), the two law firms, and the ONE psychiatrist are operating as a single tribunal unit, conspiring to achieve the same result: teacher dismissal. In fact, Dr. Solomon has admitted, UNDER OATH, that he often takes direction from the districts he represents, providing the outcome the district prescribes. That is, the good Dr. knows the result of the fitness exam, before he has met the teacher or reviewed the file. The courts have ruled that the Dr. does not work for the districts, and the Dr. claims that he only provides an opinion, NOT a diagnosis. Imagine losing your career and life’s passion due to an opinion issued by a “non-employee”. He never witnessed me working with kids or colleagues. He never tested me. He never spoke to my supervisors who probably knew me better than anyone. I shared an office with four other teachers. They were never interviewed, by anyone. In my case, the Dr. “opined” that I lacked empathy. The reality, and irony, is that I was guilty of TOO much empathy, trying TOO hard to do TOO much for the kids. I cared too much. Gave too much. Perhaps those emotions and feelings are all too easily misinterpreted? I never crossed that imaginary line. Someone once said, only a truly evil person could harm a child. Well, that’s not me. For me, teaching was everything. It wasn’t just a job to me. Everything was taken from me, unfairly and unjustly.

Many words come to mind to describe what happened to me. Collusion, conspiracy, complicity, corruption, prejudice, discrimination etc. I’ll leave it up to the reader to determine if discrimination or prejudice was a factor in the district doing what they did. I believe it is time community members start asking questions of the school districts they support with their hard earned money. I have the data and information to support my claims.