Wednesday, December 30, 2015

A Second Bite Of The Apple To Terminate Teachers- New York State's Part 83.






















In the New York Post today there is an article about the two female foreign language teachers who were allegedly caught, after school locking lips and being partly undressed, in a classroom.  The DOE brought 3020-a charges against them and-both were fired due mostly from the bad publicity it generated in the media.  However. in their Article 75 appeal both teachers were given their jobs back after being suspended without pay for a year or more.  End of story?  No, not quite.

It now appears one of the two teachers has been investigated by the State of New York under their Part 83 for "good moral character.  This formally little used State provision allows the State to revoke an educator's teaching certificate and was only used against teachers found guilty of serious sexual misconduct with a student or for felony criminal convictions  However, over the last few years the State has vigorously pursued New York City teachers who were found to have committed misconduct such as corporal punishment, inappropriate behavior, and other non-firing offenses, despite the fact that many of them survived their 3020-a hearings. .

The definition of "good moral character" is quite vague and inclusive that allows the State to arbitrarily decide who to file Part 83 against, usually from a recommendation from the DOE's Office of Legal Services, since it takes a representative of a school district to notify the State of actions taken against a tenured teacher.   Betsy Combier's blog clearly spells out the State Part 83 requirements and can found here.

One example is the selective nature of the State's application of Part 83.  The two teachers found to have allegedly engaged in inappropriate behavior in a classroom after school.  However, only one of the two teachers were subject to the Part 83 investigation, why?   It should have applied to both or neither teacher and since there were no students or children involved and occurred after school by two consenting adults, why is Part 83 being used to take that teacher's license?  Seems unfair to me.

The State's aggressive used of Part 83 to revoke a teacher's license is all part of the Cuomo agenda to terminate teachers and not to improve student instruction. Just because a teacher survives the 3020-a process, look out for New York State's Part 83 provision that gives the politicians a second bite of the apple to terminate tenured teachers.

7 comments:

  1. Well, if ALL the charges against the teacher were dismissed (and I am not saying they were), one would think collateral estoppel would be a fairly effective Part 83 defense for the teacher.

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  2. TeachmyclassMrMayor(andyoutooMrMulgrew)3:35 PM

    Funny, they are not going after administrators who have had two sexual harassment suits settled against him. And he still has his job.

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  3. That's because the Office of Legal Services does not recommend to the State to go after these administrators.

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  4. Anonymous4:05 PM

    Unbelievable...

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  5. Anonymous6:09 PM

    Well todays new vocabulary word boys and girls is "Sapphic " And my, where were these teachers when I was in High School? Did anyone besides me marvel at the new study concluding women are either bi or lesbian? I think I might stay on a few more years after all.

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  6. Anonymous12:04 PM

    The fact that Part 83 charges were not initiated until the City lost the termination case, should be part of her defense strategy. It shows malice and retaliation.

    If what she did was truly immoral, then why did they wait this long to file the charge?

    The term immoral, of course, is very highly subjective.

    Would a reasonable person view this incident as being so immoral that she shouldn't teach children?

    This also shows that the State Education Department is very corrupted by the billionaire dollars.

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  7. Anonymous12:08 AM

    I'll bet money Cuomo instigated this. I'm sure the case popped up on his radar, and the name of the clause seems like it would ring his bell. The antiquated and priggish sound of "immoral conduct" seems like the type of phrase that appeal to narrow minded, bigoted Cuomo pseudo-centrist supporters. Plus, he fancies himself a lawyer (the prestigious Albany law school, and all). I'm sure lawyers on his staff were rolling their eyes when he suggested it, knowing it's a losing proposition.

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