The True Story of Teacher Christine Rubino And Her Prosecution By The New York City Department of Education

The True Story of Teacher Christine Rubino And Her Prosecution By The New York City Department of Education
by Betsy Combier, Editor, Parentadvocates.org
LINK

Christine Rubino

Summary:
On June 23 2010, Rubino went on her computer early in the morning and sent a post out on Facebook about how awful it was that a girl student drowned at the beach, the newspaper said.Later that same day, she returned and went back on Facebook, and in a moment of frustration called her students the “devils spawn”. An employee at her school was also a Facebook "friend" and he printed out the comments and gave them to the Principal. 4 months later Christine was told she was being investigated and she was removed from her classroom. She went into her 3020-a admitting her error and apologizing, but the Gotcha Squad would have none of it, and "convinced" Hearing Officer Randi Lowitt to terminate Christine. The NYC DOE has no internet policy. New York State Supreme Court Judge Barbara Jaffe overturned the termination in recognition of Christine's 15 years of service, without any disciplinary actions prior to the current matter.


No one is arguing a First Amendment defense....... 


Christine Rubino, a math teacher at Brooklyn's PS 203, was considered a good teacher by her principal. She had no disciplinary issues or U-ratings until she told the Principal that a student in one of her classes touched her breast. On June 23 2010, she went on her computer early in the morning and sent a post out on Facebook about how awful it was that a girl student at another school drowned at the beach, the newspaper said.Later that same day, she returned and went back on Facebook, and in a moment of frustration called her students the “devils spawn”. Christine told me many times that as a single mom of two children she adores, she would never hurt a child. I believe her. She is a very credible, passionate woman who is not afraid of speaking out about what is right, what is fact, and what is made up fantasy, something the NYC DOE does all the time and then the victims flee in fear. This is not Christine, and I applaud her.

The comments she made about the class that day in June 2010 she should not have made, she realized, so she removed it, and did not think about it since her Facebook page was "private" and she was not friends with any children or students in any grade at the school. What she did not know was that a colleague who was at the school and on her friends list, printed out the comment and gave it to the Principal. This was June 23, 2010. In July her principal, Lisa Esposito, wrote her a letter congratulating her on a job well done. In January 2011 Christine received an "S" for a great performance in her classroom. This occurred, remember, after Esposito received the Facebook comment from June 2010.

In September Christine was given her usual schedule of math classes. Suddenly, in October, she was re-assigned to a room next door to the principal. She heard that she was under investigation. When asked about Facebook, she told the investigator that she shared her password with a friend who was not a teacher. The investigators went to interview this friend, and she told them to come to her car. The two men sat with Christine's friend in her car, and tried to force her to say that Christine had made her say that she, not Christine, had posted the comments. The friend would not do this, because it wasnt true. However, the investigators were getting extremely harassing. Finally, she gave in, and "admitted" that Christine had told her to take the blame (which was what they wanted to hear). The friend secretly taped the investigators harassing her in the car, and Arbitrator Lowitt wanted this tape played at the arbitration hearing. I was so happy to have been in the room when the tape was played, as the investigators were giving Christine's friend a real shake-down. Priceless. Any movie producers want to get in touch with me?


Christine was brought to the "Gotcha Squad" and her New York State United Teachers ("NYSUT")Attorney Sean Kelly, told her that she must resign, as she would be terminated. Christine did not like the manner in which Sean spoke to her, nor did she see her case as a termination case. She fired Sean, and asked me to accompany her to her first day of her 3020-a arbitration with an arbitrator named Randi Lowitt. I had just been an observer of a hearing where Ms. Lowitt was the arbitrator, and the teacher Respondent was exonerated, or completely cleared. I had a pretty good impression of Ms. Lowitt as someone who was not "hired to fire", as some arbitrators on the UFT-DOE panel are, such as Leona Barsky and Josh Javits.

I changed my mind when Ms. Lowitt became the pawn of the Director of the Gotcha Squad, Theresa Europe. (See the Gotcha Squad article above). Ms. Europe runs the Administrative Trials Unit with venom for tenured teachers. Until recently Europe's boss was a woman by the name of Courtnaye Jackson-Chase, who is an Attorney now assigned detail as DOE CEO Dennis Walcott's Assistant. He needs one. Badly.

Back to Christine. Every day of her 3020-a, Theresa Europe sat in and stared at Arbitrator Lowitt, clearly trying to intimidate Lowitt. Europe kept her arm around the back of the chair of the DOE Attorney in the case, Mr. Jeff Gamils. It seems to me that Lowitt succumbed. After testimony by the Principal that she thought nothing of the comments Christine made, and thus left her to teach her classes as Christine had done for 15 years, the Principal admitted on the record that when she was told by "legal" that she had to terminate Christine but she did not want to do this, as Christine was a very good teacher, she was quite upset. The principal testified that "legal" pressured her into going for Christine's termination. That's how the Gotcha Squad works.

Randy Lowitt terminated Christine. This was truly shocking, as Christine apologized for her comments, and her comments were not related at all to her teaching ability or teacher effectiveness. Also, the NYC DOE has no online/internet policy, so everything that they do to anyone who has said or posted on Facebook is arbitrary and dicretionary. Also, she was accused of interfering with an official investigation. Huh? Where is the evidence? In my opinion, this is proof of collusion of the arbitrator with the NYC DOE. Didnt happen. Randi Lowitt made her decision, and Christine was fired.

Her attorney at 3020-a, Brian Glass, was hired to write her appeal, Verified Petition, Reply Affirmation, (see also Law Department Motion To Dismiss) to the New York State Supreme Court however the Judge, Judge Barbara Jaffe, overturned Christine's termination, saying that she thought that termination under the circumstances of this case was "shocking".

Throughout this ordeal Christine has said that she was eager to return to class. "“I always did my job and I was good at it,” fifth-grade teacher Christine Rubino said Sunday. “I’m sorry if I offended anyone. Do I have to lose my career over it?”

Also from the Daily News article:
Rubino, a teacher for 15 years, was fired last June after also ranting on Facebook that her students should drown. A judge cleared her to go back to class last week.

But the city’s Law Department released a statement Sunday saying that Rubino’s comments “warranted her termination” and that it was considering an appeal.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jaffe ruled that Rubino, who makes $78,000-a-year, should get her job back because she had an unblemished record.

“While her reference to a child’s death is repulsive, there is no evidence that her postings are part of a pattern of conduct or anything other than an isolated incident of intemperance,” Jaffe wrote.

Rubino, a teacher at PS 203 in Flatlands, was canned after Facebook posts became public.

“After today, I’m thinking the beach sounds like a wonderful idea for my 5th graders. I HATE THEIR GUTS! They are all the devils spawn,” she posted in June 2010, a day after a 12-year-old Harlem girl drowned at a Long Island beach.

Rubino added to her problems when a friend responded on Facebook: "oh you would let little Kwame float away!"

Rubino replied: "Yes, I wld(sic) not throw a life jacket in for a million!!"

Rubino was fired after a hearing officer found that she was guilty of "misconduct, neglect of duty and conduct unbecoming her profession."

Mr. Brian Glass, Christine's Attorney, emailed me this:

"This is the fourth 3020-a decision in which I have had the penalty vacated by judges in the last approximately two years. I also have had at least 3 Unsatisfactory annual ratings of teachers overturned in the same time period. Each decision has been by a different judge. I frankly was not optimistic about winning any of these cases. There appears to be a recognition by the courts that the 3020-a process as well as the U rating appeal process have become wrongly exploited as a weapon of the DOE gestapo that has sought to demonize teachers over relatively minor incidents. There also appears to be a recognition that these so-called "neutral due process" procedures for teachers are in reality not neutral at all, given the powerful financial incentives of the hearing officers to not risk their own livelihoods in such cases. Hearing officers who dare not to do the DOE's bidding risk their livelihoods by not imposing overly harsh penalties that assuage the DOE bully prosecutors. Fortunately, there are judges in this country who are wholly independent of the DOE and are compassionate enough to understand the importance of due process in this democratic society as well as allowing individuals to learn and move on from their mistakes.

The DOE almost certainly will appeal this judge's decision, invoke its automatic stay for 9 months, and tie up this case in litigation for the next year. Even if Ms. Rubino is successful on appeal, the DOE will seek to further delay her reinstatement by insisting on additional costly hearings and arguing that only the most severest of penalties must be imposed. The DOE and media outlets favorable to its present policies will also likely criticize the courts rather than the DOE prosecutors, claiming how outrageous it is that Ms. Rubino should get a second chance at restoring her career. Unfortunately she has a long road ahead in her quest to restore her livelihood and reputation.

The DOE did not need to elect to invoke the 3020-a process in this case. A simple warning to Ms. Rubino about her mistake would have sufficed, and this would not have been repeated. Perhaps in this time of scarce resources, the substantial time and money on this case could be better allocated by the DOE positively supporting its teachers in the classroom rather than demonizing and punishing its staff."

Bryan D. Glass, Esq.
Partner

What do you think?

Betsy Combier
betsy.combier@gmail.com       

Christine Rubino Wins Her Appeal In New York State Supreme Court

New York State Supreme Court Overturns Arbitrator Randi Lowitt's Decision To Terminate Christine Rubino For Facebook Comments by Betsy Combier

 
Christine Rubino taught for 15 years and was, according to the Principal of her school, an "excellent" teacher. On June 23, 2010 Christine posted on her Facebook page to her 120 friends early in the morning that she felt terrible about a young girl drowning while on a trip with her class the previous day, as reported in the newspapers. Later that afternoon, she posted a comment that her kids were the "devil's spawn", which she took offline a few days later, not thinking that anyone outside of her friends had seen it, and knowing that she did not treat her students abusively and that her comment was not reflective of her work, herself, or her feelings about her students. A single arbitrator, Randi Lowitt, terminated Ms. Rubino under what seems to be a "zero tolerance" mandate in NYC. On February 1, 2012 New York State Supreme Court Judge Barbara Jaffe vacated the termination pursuant to an Article 7511 appeal. 
           

Christine Rubino

Christine Rubino taught for 15 years and was, according to the Principal of her school, an "excellent" teacher. On June 23, 2010 Christine posted on her Facebook page to her 120 friends early in the morning that she felt terrible about a young girl drowning while on a trip with her class the previous day, as reported in the newspapers. Later that afternoon, she posted a comment that her kids were the "devil's spawn", which she took down a few days later, not thinking that anyone outside of her small circle of adult friends had seen it, and knowing that she did not treat her students abusively and that her comment was not reflective of her work, herself, or her feelings about her students. 

A single arbitrator on the UFT-NYCDOE 3020-a Arbitration Panel, Randi Lowitt, terminated Ms. Rubino under what seems to be a "zero tolerance" mandate in NYC for tenured teachers, no matter how well or badly the tenured employee does in any classroom. Am I saying that arbitrators in NYC on the 3020-a panel chosen by, supposedly, NYSUT, the UFT and the DOE, are not "neutral" as required by statute and the rules of the American Arbitration Association?

Yes, I am.

I am not an Attorney and I do not, therefore give "legal" advice, so my opinion is just that, my opinion, and nothing more than that, except I have sat in on 3020-a hearings for nine (9) years, taking notes as a journalist/reporter. My goal is to write a book on whether or not the due process rights of the NYC tenured employees charged and brought to 3020-a were honored and preserved. I attended every hearing date for Christine, at her request as well as at the request of her 3020-a Attorney, Mr. Brian Glass, who asked for my help and assistance. In 2004 I wrote an article for my website on how no one, not parents, not students, and not teachers, had any rights in NYC public schools anymore ("Editorial: The New York City Department of Education is a Sham and Mike Bloomberg is the Flim-Flam Man") where I posted links to the policy statement of Mike Bloomberg on why he removed the vote from public school constituents and anyone else. I followed this with the articles about how the NYC Department of Education set up tenured teachers to lose their jobs at Section 3020-a arbitration hearings, the "employee trials" in NYC. Another post that is relevant to my argument is the video of Dennis Walcott, the "pretend" Chancellor, wherein he states that "Just Cause" must be dropped as a standard of review at arbitration....he wants to get rid of everyone who is charged with anything, quickly.

During the hearing Christine spoke to a reporter at the New York Post, Susan Edelman, about her case, and Christine wanted Sue to attend. So, Ms. Edelman came to the hearing as a member of the public to observe. The hearing was "open and public", as the UFT contract states is a right teachers have. I'm in favor of this practice, due to the fact that if people are exposed to the light, those who deliberately harm other people run for cover. I believe that a "good" hearing (where all relevant evidence is presented, there is proper notice, a thorough and fair investigation, and all contractual rights are honored) - is worth observing, and an Attorney and arbitrator do a better job if someone not under his or her direct control is watching.

I have spoken with many arbitrators in New York City on the UFT-DOE panel about this issue, and the "good" arbitrators always support an open and public hearing. Two arbitrators (maybe more) have specifically asked for me to attend their 3020-a hearings, or wondered aloud if a Respondent could ask me to be there. They both know that I value their respect for procedural and substantive due process, even when an employee is terminated, if warranted by a preponderance of the evidence. The NYC DOE has the burden of proof at 3020-a.

I was shocked to see Arbitrator Randi Lowitt attack Sue Edelman at the hearing. She seemed genuinely angry that Sue was there. From that day forward NYSUT Attorneys have told their clients not to have an open and public hearing because "Betsy Combier" and "reporters" may come and you, Mr. or Ms. employee will be terminated because of that.

Baloney. What NYSUT does not want outside eyes to see are the deals and frame-ups that occur at 3020-a. If you want to get rid of your NYSUT Attorney, just suggest or demand an open and public hearing. Some NYSUT Attorneys (yes, I know who you are) will remove him or herself from the case, and you will get another Attorney). Remember what happens to cockroaches when you turn on the kitchen light? Also remember that over the past 9 years I have seen great work by NYSUT Attorneys as well. So dont think for a minute that I have dumped all NYSUT Attorneys into any garbage can. Every case is unique and different, and involves an array of circumstances that should be carefully examined. That's what I do. 

Theresa Europe

 Back to the 3020-a arbitration hearing of Christine Rubino: the after Sue Edelman came to the hearing, Gotcha Squad member Theresa Europe started attending on a daily basis. The only explanation that Christine and I could think of for this participation by Ms. europe was that Christine's case was already decided, a 'done deal' by the DOE, and Lowitt wanted no media eyes on her actions. When we received Lowitt's decision to terminate Christine we thought that this was further proof of deliberate harm being done to Christine. This is very strange, because Joel klein evidently hired Steve Brill to write the article on the Rubber Room for The New Yorker Magazine after he came to the hearing of LM, told the arbitrator (Jay Siegel) to call him, and left after 5 minutes. No one at the DOE had a problem with that. He labelled LM one of the "worst" teachers in NYC because that was what he was paid to do, unsubstantiated by the evidence. Jay Siegel ran the hearing as if he was paid to terminate, which was, indeed, the outcome, and the NYSUT Attorney told me and LM that Siegel's decision was "political".

This part of the story about Christine Rubino has already been done on this website and on my blog, NYC Rubber Room Reporter. See parentadvocates.org, 
The True Story of Teacher Christine Rubino And Her Prosecution By The New York City Department of Education

We did not know at that time that David Senatore would be in trouble soon.

I recently became aware of the approximately 3 years of complaints that parents and staff had made against teacher David Senatore, the teacher who was a "friend" on Christine Rubino's Facebook page and who printed out her comments which got her charged and gave them to the principal. I made some calls after receiving the news that Mr. Senatore was removed from PS 203 on March 14, 2012, after a complaint was made against him by a child who knew he was taking boys home with him in his car after school and after the afterschool program, OST. Then Principal Lisa Esposito was absent for several days, and no one said where she was.

This begs the question, did Senatore's removal and current investigation have anything to do with Christine's removal from her teaching position? Was this the reason why David Senatore gave Principal Esposito Christine's Facebook comments, and Esposito did nothing about the comments until the end of November 2010 when "legal" told her to go after termination for Christine? Did the Principal and "legal" know that the staff at 203 were talking about the complaints against Senatore, and "they" wanted to scare the staff into silence?

What we do know is that NYSUT and the DOE "allow" only the alleged incident to be explored at 3020-a in cases of misconduct (incompetency cases in front of the Teacher Performance Unit or TPU are very different) and Christine was not permitted to put into the record any evidence of Senatore's motives for giving the Facebook comments by Christine to Principal Esposito. Esposito probably was reprimanded by "legal" for putting into the record the fact that she didnt want to terminate Christine, "legal" was forcing her to go for this remedy.

My conclusion about all that I have observed and worked with at 3020-a is that the procedural and substantive rights are randomly, arbitrarily, and capriciously allocated according to the political need as relayed by the Attorneys and parties -UFT, NYSUT, DOE- involved to terminate/suspend/settle/exonerate the employee charged.

In light of my continued research into this case and the issues involved of freedom of speech rights for employees, I signed up to be a participant at an American Arbitration Association seminar called "Get the Cure: Remedy in Labor Arbitration" given at the AAA on March 26, 2012, with Randi Lowitt as moderator of the 3-person panel. When the discussion got to how a proper remedy reflects the contractual rules and regulations, I asked, "What happens if there are no contractual guidelines, as in the DOE And UFT contracts and regulations that have no internet policy in them, nor what to do if a teacher posts an improper comment on Facebook?" The question was handed over to Randi, who I could tell was furious. She answered with, an arbitrator must consider all the circumstances and evidence that would point to a proper remedy "as if" there was a clause detailing Facebook posting guidelines. Another panelist jumped in at that point and said that it basically boiled down to a careful look at "Just Cause."

In my view, Randi Lowitt certainly did not answer my question in accordance with the remedy she gave to Christine's 3020-a. I will continue to believe that she was influenced by the Gotcha Squad and the Department wanting to make an example of Christine Rubino without the seven tests of "Just cause", and no examination of First Amendment rights.

Christine appealed to the New York State Supreme Court, where Judge Barbara Jaffe vacated the termination pursuant to the Article 7511 appeal.

Judge Jaffe concluded that the decision to terminate in the Rubino case was not justified, and remanded the case back to the Department of Education for a lesser, more fair penalty. Immediately, the Corporation Counsel filed a Notice of Appeal which put a stay on the Jaffe decision. This stay would prevent Christine from going back on salary for at least another 10-11 months, a true hardship. So, Attorney Glass requested an expedited Appeal and a lifting of the stay on Jaffe's decision by the DOE. On March 27, 2012, the Appellate Division First Department granted the vacatur of the statutory stay, but not the expedited appeal.

Christine Rubino goes back on salary at the NYC Department of Education.

Grade school teacher’s aide fired for refusing to hand over Facebook password
By Tecca | Today in Tech 
LINK

Kimberly Hester, a grade school teacher's aide in Michigan, was fired for refusing to hand over her Facebook password to her supervisors. Hester posted a picture of a co-workers' shoes and pants bunched around her ankles on Facebook in April 2011 with the caption, "Thinking of you." She posted the picture in jest, but a parent who's on her Facebook friend list saw the image and reported it to Frank Squires Elementary where Hester was employed, prompting the investigation.

Teachers have gotten in trouble for Facebook status messages before, but in Hester's case, it's her refusal to hand over her password that actually got her fired. One of the supervisors from the Lewis Cass Intermediate School District (ISD), the regional service center for education in Michigan, even wrote her a letter when she refused to give them her password for the third time. Part of the letter read: "... in the absence of you voluntarily granting Lewis Cass ISD administration access to you[r] Facebook page, we will assume the worst and act accordingly." Lewis Cass wanted to put Hester on a paid administrative leave before they fired her, but she chose to go on an unpaid leave because she believes she did nothing wrong. She plans to use the letter she received to sue the school district.

An increasing number of companies and schools have started asking employees and students for their Facebook passwords. The practice has been growing at such an alarming rate, that Facebook released its official stance on the issue, telling its users that they have the right not to comply with their employers' request. Several politicians including Michigan's own State Representatives Aric Nesbitt and Matt Lori have been pushing for bills that will make the breach of privacy an illegal practice. Unfortunately, it hasn't been going very well for them — the House of Representatives recently rejected a legislation that would protect your passwords from employers' prying eyes.

This article was written by Mariella Moon and originally appeared on Tecca

Could employers begin asking for Facebook passwords on applications?
Job seekers asked to throw their privacy out the window
by Mike Wehner, November 30, 2011
LINK

Teacher Trouble: Facebook posts get educators in hot water
More and more teachers could lose their jobs for posting controversial status updates on Facebook
by Mariella Moon
LINK

NYC 3020-a Arbitrator Randi Lowitt Retaliates Against Christine Rubino In A New Decision Ordered By NY State Supreme Court

by Betsy Combier, Editor

Parentadvocates.org

LINK

 
Christine, an excellent NYC public school teacher, made a stupid comment on Facebook which she took off her page a few days later, but by then, a "friend" had given a printout to her principal. Christine was terminated by Arbitrator Randi Lowitt, and Christine appealed her decision. The NYS Supreme Court vacated the termination, then Lowitt ruled that Christine made her plight public so she has to be punished with two years' suspension without pay. Are there any adults in the audience? by Betsy Combier
           

Christine Rubino

Christine's story has so many sideshows going on, it looks like a circus. We need to look at the entire picture so that the Gotcha Squad stops trampling on the rights of tenured teachers, a group to which Christine has been returned. One thing is crystal-clear, however: The New York City Department of Education, The home and resting place for the Gotcha Squad and the "No Hire" List as well as Arbitrator Randi Lowitt are furious with Christine Rubino and her fearless stand against their lawless and vindictive punishments which harm her. She is my friend, and I am honoring her by writing as much as I possibly can about the retaliation and harm Christine has had to endure simply because she refused to be squashed by theNYC DOE, even though she never had a chance to succeed at her 3020-a. The new Decision from Arbitrator Randi Lowitt is simply vindictive and retaliatory. More about that below.

Perhaps you are not aware of the huge importance the case of Christine Rubino has to Labor Policy and Employment Law throughout the U.S. As far as I know, Christine's case is the first NYC case where a tenured teacher was terminated for making a comment on what she believed was her private Facebook page, while the NYC Department of Education did not have a social media policy. The lack of oversight by anyone at the NYC DOE is one gaping hole in the planning and implementation of any policy. I have spent more than 9 years studying the gaping holes and mistakes of the DOE, and every day I hear of another. Mayor Bloomberg may have wanted to be the "Education Mayor", but he will never reach his goal because he did not put anyone in charge who knew what he or she was doing. Read my articles "The Who Are You Kidding Award Goes To Joel Klein" and "Kleingate", and you may fill in the dots as to what my opinion is concerning the public school system which my 4 children went through and are now, thankfully, out of (as in graduated). 

Christine's Facebook comment was made after a full teaching day with difficult children. She called them "the devil's spawn" on her private Facebook page which she shared with approximately 125 friends, none of whom were children. She suggested she would like to take them to the beach a day after 6th grader Nicole Suriel died on the beach while on a trip with her class for raising money at Columbia Secondary School. A few days later christine took the comment down and has been apologizing to the worls ever since. When the DOE started to go after her 5 months later, two of them ended up verbally abusing a friend of Christine's who taped them. These two investigators wanted the friend to tell them that Christine forced her friend to say that she, not Christine, was the one who put the comment on Facebook. The tape of these two goons was played at Christine's 3020-a and Randi Lowitt thought she heard "proof" that Christine tried to interfere with the investigation of her comment on Facebook, and used the tape to terminate Christine. I heard different "proof" - that SCI uses verbal abuse to get witnesses to say what they, SCI investigators want, and the discussion was frightening.

There are many things wrong with Lowitt's "assessment", if you can call it that. I attended Christine's 3020-a, and watched Randi Lowitt and Attorneys Theresa Europe and Jeff Gamils very carefully. My opinion of Lowitt's "assessment" was, she knew that Theresa Europe and the DOE had to go after Christine and she, Lowitt knew that Christine had to be terminated, because there were too many other side shows going on which could expose the DOE's massive fraud on the City of New York and the parents of the NYC public school system.

If you read the transcript of the first day of the Hearing, you will see that Jeff Gamils, the DOE Attorney, wanted to bring in three witnesses, even though Christine did not have an Attorney. Christine objected, and Randi told her, "There is nothing to object to" (p. 46). Also, it may shocj people to realize that Claude Hersh, head of NYC NYSUT office, picked the Attorneys who would work on the case (and, by picking the Attorneys, he chose the arbitrator). See p. 43, Jeff Gamils talks about the email from Claude. Then, in the transcript of the last day we read that the investigators who interviewed Christine's friend in her car told her that if she did not do what they wanted her to do, she would be put into jail. (p. 1486). This is pretty tough stuff, folks.

Christine had to be punished, not just for her daring to blow the whistle on the DOE by having media at her hearing - I am considered 'press', and Christine asked Sue Edelman of the NY POST to attend - but because of her connection, by sheer coincidence, to the imbedded fraud at the DOE:

1. Nicole Suriel, whose name was never mentioned by Christine, did not have to die in the beach accident June 22, 2010. Dr. Jose Maldonado-Rivera, Principal of Columbia Secondary School, was running a scam operation to fund his fake non-profit, and Nicole's class won the trip to the beach for raising the most money. But he couldnt have chaparones or permission slips, because he did not want questions to be asked about where the money would go. After the accident, the teacher was fired, the AP was demoted and Dr. Maldonado-rivera was reprimanded. The parents are suing. How come the Principal was only reprimanded? The DOE knew all about the scam he was running, and could not allow him to speak up about it, or get angry at the DOE. Tom Allon, CEO of Manhattan Media and running for NYC Mayor in 2013, gave him an award in 2009 as "Principal of the Year". I guess Tom played along , or did not do his research.

2. Several of her students in Christine's class in June 2010 who were referred to in her very temporary post on Facebook as "the devil's spawn" are the same kids who blinded Kardin Ulysse at the Roy Mann Junior High School in Bergen Beach. All people who have heard about the blinding of Ulysse call the kids who did the ugly deed "punks" and "little hooligans". No one has been reprimanded for this, like Christine was.

3. The DOE despises people who make "the NYC Department of Education look bad". Trust me, I am at the top of the list for harm, and all four of my children were harmed while attending their public schools. David Pakter, also a very outspoken teacher brought to 3020-a, was also charged with "making the DOE look bad." He and I asked Randi Weingarten, President of the UFT at the time, to get the DOE to withdraw that charge, and the DOE complied. Francesco Portelos is a new addition to the despised teacher list. He created a blog and posts anything the DOE says or does to him after he blew the whistle on his Principal, Linda Hill. The fact that Christine Rubino allowed Sue Edelman to come to her 3020-a infuriated Randi Lowitt so much, that Randi stopped the hearing after she told Sue Edelman to leave, and Sue said no. Randi backed down afterwards, but remained furious, as you can see from her new decision giving Christine two year's suspension without payafter Judge Jaffe in the NYS Supreme Court wrote a decision saying that Christine's termination was "shocking to the conscience".

4. David Senatore, the "friend" on Christine's Facebook page who printed out her comment and gave it to the principal of Christine's school, was also a teacher at the same school. He was a "favorite" of the Principal, who was covering up Senatore's love for certain boys who attended the after school program. Senatore knew that Christine and others were aware of his taking boys home with him and letting them use his pool. Getting Christine out of the school was a convenient solution. An update on Senatore's story is that in March 2012 he was removed from the school, and has been awaiting charges while sitting at 335 Adams Street. He called me to ask me to help him find one of the boys he was fond of, and told me not to tell anyone. I reported this call, and I heard that teachers have written the investigators about Senatore's actions for several years with the boys in the after school program. 

This article is the third that I have written about Christine Rubino. Here are the other posts on this website and on NYC Rubber Room Reporter:

The True Story of Teacher Christine Rubino And Her Prosecution By The New York City Department of Education
and
New York State Supreme Court Overturns Arbitrator Randi Lowitt's Decision To Terminate Christine Rubino For Facebook Comments by Betsy Combier

After NY State Supreme Court Judge Barbara Jaffe decided that termination was a "shocking" penalty and remanded the case back to the NYC DOE for a lesser penalty, the Gotcha Squad Director Theresa Europe and her subordinate, Attorney Jeff Gamils, made sure that Arbitrator Randi Lowitt got the case again. This is outrageous, as Jaffe did not order the new penalty be decided by the same arbitrator.

Randi Lowitt should never have been given the authority to make a second determination for Christine Rubino, as she was, at Christine's 3020-a, not neutral at all, in my opinion. In NYC the panel of arbitrators who get appointed to hear cases are "permanent", meaning they stay for a year, and get re-appointed by Theresa Europe and Claude Hersh from NYSUT every June. Until April 1, 2012, when new rules changed the business of arbitration that dominates this panel, anyone would have considered the job as NYC Arbitrator a very good one, as each arbitrator was paid $1400-$2300/day, not the much less fees for arbitration under the rules of the American Aarbitration Association.

Each arbitrator gets a DOE Attorney and a NYSUT Attorney who stays with him or her for the year, or for many years. This leads, of course, to an extremely 'chummy' environment where the Respondent teacher's witnesses and defense may be forgotten.

Christine alienated Randi Lowitt the second day of her hearing. Christine was given Attorney Sean Kelly as her NYSUT Attorney, and on day one she knew this would not work for her. Kelly did not believe in her case, and at the pre-hearing kept telling her to resign. I was not in attendance at the pre-hearing, but Christine and I had discussed her case before it began, and she asked for an open and public hearing so that I could attend. Here is Christine's first email to me sent Feb. 12, 2011:

"To Whom it May Concern,
Hello, My name is Christine Rubino and I have been working for the NYC Board of Education for the last 14 years. I have been in the same school for all those years. I am now currently sitting at 131 Livingston Street waiting for my 3020 hearing to proceed (Pre-hearing is Wednesday, February 16th, and hearing is supposed to begin February 17th). My crime... A facebook comment that was made on my own time, from my own computer, that was not racial or sexual in nature. Nor, did this comment contain names of the place of my work. It didnt hurt or threaten anyone. It was an off the cuff comment, that was made out of just having a bad day. My privacy settings were set to private, and a confidential person took comments and showed AP, and Principal. who then lodged a complaint against me with the Office Of Special Investigation. The Board is looking to fire me over this. I have many notes in my file that prove I am an excellent teacher and do a great job, but for some reason they are going for the jugular on this. I do not feel the union is preparing the case like they should, and I am seeking outside counsel on Monday. The punishment does not seem to fit the crime, and I feel like I am being railroaded, and that a huge injustice is being commited against me. Is this something you might be interested in. I am a single mother of 2 children, and feel like this is just a little too over the edge, and the DOE is being unfair."

I called her up and have spoken to her almost every week, sometimes every day, ever since.

On the first day of the actual hearing I was there. Christine told Randi and Jeff Gamils that she would no longer use Shawn Kelly in the 3020-a. This shocked and angered Randi Lowitt. Her team was broken. Lowitt tried to get Christine to start the hearing without her new Attorney, Brian Glass, but Christine kept objecting to this, and finally Lowitt gave in and closed for the day, not so much for due process considerations, but because she was frustrated in not getting her way quickly. If you read the transcript of the first day of the Hearing, you will see that Jeff Gamils, the DOE Attorney, wanted to bring in three witnesses, even though Christine did not have an Attorney. Christine objected, and Randi told her, "There is nothing to object to" (p. 46). Also, it may shock people to realize that Claude Hersh, head of NYC NYSUT office, picked the Attorneys who would work on the case (and, by picking the Attorneys, he chose the arbitrator). See p. 43, Jeff Gamils talks about the email from Claude. Then, in the transcript of the last day we read that the investigators who interviewed Christine's friend in her car told her that if she did not do what they wanted her to do, she would be put into jail. (p. 1486). This is pretty tough stuff, folks. 


A side show to this side show is that on May 25, 2011, less than 1 month after the closing argument, there was a fire drill at 49-51 Chambers Street. I happened to be there for a hearing at which I was the paralegal. Everyone in the building had to exit the building, and all Arbitrators, Gotcha Squad, OPI personnel, everyone had to stand out side. A teacher who was going through his 3020-a with Attorney Kelly as his Attorney saw this person and I talking (the teacher was standing right behind me in line), and came over and said "Come with me." Kelly took this person a few feet away, turned towards the hundreds of people standing on the sidewalk, and started screaming at his client, "DO NOT SPEAK WITH BETSY COMBIER! ANYONE WHO SPEAKS WITH HER IS FIRED! SHE IS A CRIMINAL!" I decided to turn on the video on my smartphone, and walked calmly over to Kelly. I said to him, "Hey, Shawn, what's up with this? Where did you get this stuff from?" He told me that I was violating the law. I walked away, went back to the line.

Lowitt seemed to like Brian, but Christine had asked me to get media coverage and invited Sue Edelman of the NY POST. Sue had never been to a 3020-a, so she came. Lowitt was truly enraged, and told Sue that she could not sit in. Sue said that she did not have to leave, and this is an open and public hearing. Lowitt adjourned while she called a few people, and finally told everyone that she would "allow" Sue Edelman to stay. Sue is mentioned in Lowitt's second decision, below, that's how angry Lowitt was at that point with Christine, Sue, and probably me, as some sort of ringleader. Go figure.

As I have said in my previous articles, Theresa Europe, the Director of the Gotcha Squad and the ATU (Administrative Trials Unit) has her hand in every case, from a distance. I have seen her and spoken to her briefly whenever I see her at 51 Chambers Street quite often over the past 9 years. I have never attended a hearing where Theresa came and sat all day, many days of a hearing, as in Christine's case. I believe that she was making sure that Lowitt terminated Christine. It worked.

Lowitt's second decision after the remand back to the DOE is here. And now Christine is starting a second appeal. And on and on it goes, until nobody wins anything and everyone loses, all paid for by you, the public.

Are there any adults in the audience?

Betsy Combier

Rubber Rooms Still Exist, Folks

Troubled city teachers still bouncing around the supposedly shutdown 'rubber rooms' as city wastes $22 million a year

One $78G-a-year teacher practiced softball pitches while in ‘solitary’ at unused locker room and another instructor tallied chairs as disciplinary cases dragged

Comments (33)

By Ben Chapman / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Published: Tuesday, October 16, 2012, 3:00 AM

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/city-schools-rubber-rooms-bounce-back-article-1.1184406#ixzz2ITZ85qD7

Norman Y. Lono for New York Daily News

Ex-teacher Michael Portnoy says he was forced to spend 13 months in an unused locker room after a dispute with his principal and worked on softball skills to ward off boredom.

How The News covered story of city closing down rubber rooms in April 2010.

Educators accused of breaking rules, abusing kids — or simply failing to provide students with a decent education — will be paid a stunning $22 million by the city this year for doing absolutely nothing.
More than two years have passed since city officials and the teachers union announced with great fanfare that they’d found a way to shut down the infamous “rubber rooms” where as many as 800 teachers languished — sometimes for years — awaiting disciplinary hearings.
Since then, the number of teachers collecting a salary to twiddle their thumbs while their disciplinary cases plod through the system has dropped dramatically to just over 200 teachers, but a new kind of rubber room has emerged in its place.

So-called 'rubber room' in Ozone Park, Queens, was supposed to be a relic of the past, but such dumping grounds for problem teachers are still scattered around the city, News probe has found.

It lives now in broom closets, unused offices — even stinky locker rooms — in school buildings all over the city.
“You start to go a little crazy,” said former Bronx middle school teacher Michael Portnoy, 43, who earned more than $78,000 for sitting in a dark, unused girls’ locker room for 13 months until being fired last spring over what he said was an argument with his principal.
Portnoy, who is appealing his firing from Middle School 142, began each day by getting a few hours’ sleep in a beach chair while mice scurried past him on the concrete floor, he said.
He battled boredom by sticking a miniature batting cage to a peeling wall and taught himself how to pitch a softball.
“You ever see anyone in solitary confinement? It was awful,” said Portnoy, who taught in city schools for 14 years. “I wouldn’t go back there for anything.”
Officially called “reassignment centers,” rubber rooms have been around for years, populated by teachers who face disciplinary charges but are allowed to remain on the payroll by a union contract that gives them the right to a hearing before they can be fired.
Before the major rubber room reform in 2010, teachers routinely waited two years for a hearing as massive administrative holding pens overflowed with increasingly disgruntled teachers who read books, taught themselves to knit and led yoga classes at taxpayer expense.
Dating back about a decade since the city overhauled its disciplinary process for firing teachers, they came to be called “rubber rooms” because inmates said they went crazy bouncing off the walls.
“This was an absurd and expensive abuse of tenure,” Mayor Bloomberg said when he announced the new reforms in April 2010. “We’ve been able to solve what was one of the most divisive issues in our school system.”
At the time, teachers union boss Michael Mulgrew crowed that the new agreement would shepherd in a “faster and fairer process.”
And the process has improved.
A flood of new arbitrators slashed the waiting time for a hearing from two years to three to six months, and the number of teachers in purgatory dropped significantly.
The total population fluctuates from one day to the next, but on an average day, there are roughly 200 teachers in limbo, officials say — a tiny portion of more than 75,000 teachers on the payroll.
Last week, the tally of rubber-roomed teachers reached 218.
Their salaries and benefits alone will cost taxpayers $22 million this year, but that’s only some of the cost. The city is shelling out thousands more to pay substitute teachers to cover their classrooms.
But while the big reforms announced in 2010 were supposed to put an end to idle teachers doing nothing, today’s rubber room residents say they’re as unproductive as ever.
Bloomberg said they would be given work to do such as answering phones or planning curriculum — anything that didn’t involve working with children — but several teachers say they’ve mostly just stewed.
“It’s boredom — a cruel and unusual punishment,” said Francesco Portelos, who made headlines this month for broadcasting a live Web video of himself surfing the Internet from a rubber room.

Anthony DelMundo for New York Daily News

Teacher Francesco Portelos blogged and produced live Web video of himself surfing the Net while spending five months in limbo in 'rubber rooms' in Queens.

A science instructor from Staten Island’s Intermediate School 49, Portelos has been kept in rubber rooms for more than five months for allegedly hacking into his school’s website, conducting a real estate business during class time, and tampering with the investigations into his allegedly improper activities.
For the first two months, Portelos was stuck in the bleak basement copy room of an Ozone Park, Queens, office building, where he whiled away the hours by boning up on labor law and blogging about his case.
Education officials then moved him to an empty conference room in the same building, where he broadcast hours of video showing him pecking away at his laptop.
After the city learned of his webcam, Portelos was told to shut it down and work on lesson plans for his classes.
He continues to draw his yearly salary of $75,000.
Former Brooklyn teacher Christine Rubino said she was assigned to an empty cubicle in an administration building for five months and once was told to count all the chairs in the six-story building.
“There were 800 of them,” Rubino said. “They told me they needed to know how many, in case there was a meeting . . . . It was the only job they gave me that month.”
After Rubino tallied all the chairs in the dingy downtown Brooklyn building, she returned to her desk, where she collected her $75,000 salary and surfed the Internet while awaiting the outcome of her case.
The elementary school teacher at Brooklyn’s Public School 203 was fired after making a joke about drowning her students on Facebook.
In June 2010, a day after a 12-year-old Harlem girl drowned on a school trip to a Long Island beach, Rubino ranted online: “After today, I am thinking the beach sounds like a wonderful idea for my 5th graders! I HATE THEIR GUTS!”
She was fired a year later but successfully sued to get her job back. The city has appealed the verdict that went her way in February, so she remains unemployed while her case makes its way through the courts.
Education officials claim that since no more than about a dozen mothballed instructors are holed up at any one address, the rubber rooms no longer exist.
“For some teachers, while that clock is ticking, they shouldn’t be in the classroom,” said city Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott. “That’s nothing to be fixed, that’s part of an agreement.”
Mulgrew wouldn’t comment on individual teachers who said they weren’t given work to do in rubber rooms, but said the current system is better than the one it replaced.
“The system has been working much better than anything we have had before,” Mulgrew said. “We did not want a system where people were sitting there. We wanted a fast and fair system.”
The union has not yet formally objected to conditions in the new “solitary confinement” rubber rooms.
“We signed this agreement in good faith with the city and we expect them to follow it. Fast and fair is all we ask,” he said.
With Corinne Lestch
bchapman@nydailynews.com

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/city-schools-rubber-rooms-bounce-back-article-1.1184406#ixzz2ITZoqxxe

Reality Check From Betsy Combier On: "A Rubber Room By Any Other Name..." by Tom Segal

Parentadvocates.org
LINK

From Betsy Combier: Mr. Thomas Segal, whoever he is, is so off track in his article re-posted below that I had to step in with my 10 years' of experience in researching the how, why, when, and where of the Rubber Rooms....when you read about the "rubber rooms" think about people sitting there, some guilty but getting paid for doing nothing, and others, innocent and getting paid while they await the foreclosure on their homes, the end of their careers, being on the sex registry for no factual reason and solely as the result of some whim of an administrator who wants to save money in the school budget.

Mr. Thomas Segal, whoever he is, is so off track in his article re-posted below that I had to step in with my 10 years' of experience in researching the how, why, when, and where of the Rubber Rooms.

It is true that the re-assignment centers for teachers were nicknamed "rubber rooms" many years ago, no one is exactly sure whether it was 10 or 30 years ago. The large warehouses ended in 2010 because the New York City Board/Department of Education suddenly woke up to the fact that when 100 people share a room or space, the people there develop alliances, become a community, and try to organize. The DOE wants to get rid of every tenured teacher making a high salary. The DOE also wants to get rid of expensive staff in a way that all the false claims about the person will hold up at the 3020-a hearing, which all tenured teachers are given before they are "punished" for their misconduct or incompetency. 100 people talking together is dangerous to this effort because people talk about Rights, Laws, and who is good or bad at getting the right information to the right people at the right time.

The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) and the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) do nothing as these imprisoned people are accused and found guilty of charges that are, in most cases, ridiculous and false. (Im not talking about the true miscreants who are actually guilty of what they are charged with). The national outrage against people sitting around getting paid to do nothing is valid IF and ONLY IF the person is actually a bad teacher and guilty of whatever he/she has been charged with. An excellent teacher who truly loves his or her job and has been removed from his or her classroom so that the DOE can permanently stop him or her from teaching is another matter.

In his article Mr. Segal mentions Christine Rubino, the teacher who, in a moment of frustration, said to her closed circle of friends on facebook, that she hated her students and would like to take them to the beach. This was a stupid thing to say, but it happened. Christine saw, a few days later, that it was stupid, took it down, and forgot about it. Unfortunately, one of her Facebook friends was a teacher at the school, David Senatore, who wanted Christine to be removed from the school because she was very popular and a favorite of the Principal, and also, she knew that he was taking boys home with him after the after school program, and allowing them to use his swimming pool, buying them new underwear, etc.. Her removal, he thought, would make his afterschool fun easier. He was removed after Christine's 3020-a (I was there, helping Christine's lawyer Brian Glass, and heard David Senatore testify against Christine) in March 2012, and sits in a "rubber room" today, getting his full salary to do nothing. I have a problem with this.

Meanwhile, the principal testified at the 3020-a that Christine was one of the best teachers in the school, and she did not want Christine to be terminated but was forced to charge Christine because "legal" told her to. Christine appealed, and New York State Supreme Court Judge Barbara Jaffe ruled that she had to be given a lesser penalty. 

NYS Supreme Court Judge Barbara Jaffe

Tom Segal of RethinkEducation

The NYC Law Department appealed this to the Appellate Division, First Department. Christine remains terminated and at home, without even unemployment to sustain her and her two children. ..while David Senatore sits in the 335 Adams St., Brooklyn, offices and does nothing while getting paid his full salary. By the way, David called me up to ask me to help him find one of the boys who was at his school. I heard all about his swimming pool adventures, and how he "really" loved these boys.

So, when you read about the "rubber rooms" think about people sitting there, some guilty but getting paid for doing nothing, and others, innocent and getting paid while they await the foreclosure on their homes, the end of their careers, being on the sex registry for no factual reason, etc., or have been given "U" ratings simply to get them disciplined out. The UFT and DOE no longer permit fair "U" rating appeals.

How random, arbitrary, and capricious is this?

A Rubber Room By Any Other Name...
By Tom Segal on October 17, 2012 8:58 AM
Education Week
LINK

Do people know about rubber rooms?

Obviously some of the folks reading this particular blog know about them, but my audience tends to skew on the side of educationally-aware. But are regular, everyday folk aware of their existence?

In case you are not, rubber rooms (or "reassignment centers") are what Wikipedia describes as "holding facilities" for the New York City Department of Education. They are essentially jail cells for teachers accused of misconduct awaiting resolution of their case while being paid in full to do nothing. As a resident of Manhattan (and a rational human being), this concerns me.

Yesterday, I came across a link to the Daily News that sparked my recollection of the rubber room phenomenon. Reading it, I thought to myself, "gee, that's funny. I thought Mayor Bloomberg had done away with rubber rooms a couple years ago."

As it turns out, the rubber-rooming process has just been streamlined (slightly), and while the rubber rooms themselves have been disbanded, they have simply fractured into unused offices/closets/lockerrooms that serve as the equivalent of solitary confinement to the old rubber rooms' communal holding cell.

These rubber-roomers get paid a fine salary to perform such tasks as counting the amount of chairs in a school building (a month-long assignment) and practicing pitching a softball (unclear how successful this endeavor can be in a supposedly cramped space). While the $22 million being paid to these rubber-roomers (not counting the paychecks of substitutes taking their place) is certainly a step up from the $30-40 million before the Bloomberg crackdown, it's still TWENTY TWO MILLION DOLLARS being paid to "teachers" to accomplish NOTHING.

Now, I understand that many of these rubber-roomers may have perfectly valid excuses for how they wound up rubber-roomed, and indeed the arbitration process they are waiting on may very well clear their names. However, there is no excuse at all for the lack of production and wasted manpower, from either end of the aisle. Administrators and the DoE can't find more legitimate uses for the rubber-roomers than counting chairs? I understand they cannot have face-to-face interaction with students during their arbitration process, but I find it extremely hard to believe (especially given my familiarity with Learning Management Systems through my work at Rethink Education) that there are no data input projects or things of that nature worth tasking the rubber-roomers with. Perhaps these rubber-roomers can be spearheading fundraising efforts for the very schools whose funds they are currently draining? Services like Schoola make this rather easy to accomplish these days.

On the other side, do these rubber-roomers feel comfortable accepting a paycheck from the state for twiddling their thumbs (or practicing their slow-pitch softball form, apparently) for five days a week when that money could be going to far more legitimate causes in the education of our kids? Just seems inherently wrong to me. I readily admit that I do not have all the information on this subject, but given the information that is public, it appears everyone carries some blame here, and nobody seems to want to make much of an effort to change. The victims, as usual: students.

One of the examples given in the Daily News article of a teacher stuck in the new rubber room system is a teacher that wrote "After today, I am thinking the beach sounds like a wonderful idea for my 5th graders! I HATE THEIR GUTS!" on her Facebook page the day 

Christine Rubino

after a 12-year old girl drowned during a school trip. This "teacher" (or whatever term you may use to describe her, as teacher appears to be a stretch) somehow successfully sued to get her job back and now spends her days like the others toiling away on the taxpayer dime as the arbitration process continues.

Not helping matters is the fact that 25 of the city's 39 arbitrators from a year ago have quit as of June 2012. Turns out they were not getting paid and are suing the DoE for $9 million (we shall see how long that process takes to unfold).

This is all truly wild stuff to an outsider like myself. New York City is currently forced to pay teachers that are not teaching while they wait for arbitrators to arbitrate on the validity of the firings, except they are not paying the arbitrators charged with potentially stripping the pay of teachers that don't teach?

My head hurts. 

Troubled city teachers still bouncing around the supposedly shutdown 'rubber rooms' as city wastes $22 million a year
One $78G-a-year teacher practiced softball pitches while in ‘solitary’ at unusued locker room and another instructor tallied chairs as disciplinary cases dragged
BY BEN CHAPMAN, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, OCTOBER 16, 2012, 3:00 AM
LINK

Ex-teacher Michael Portnoy says he was forced to spend 13 months in an unused locker room after a dispute with his principal and worked on softball skills to ward off boredom.

Educators accused of breaking rules, abusing kids — or simply failing to provide students with a decent education — will be paid a stunning $22 million by the city this year for doing absolutely nothing.

More than two years have passed since city officials and the teachers union announced with great fanfare that they’d found a way to shut down the infamous “rubber rooms” where as many as 800 teachers languished — sometimes for years — awaiting disciplinary hearings.

Since then, the number of teachers collecting a salary to twiddle their thumbs while their disciplinary cases plod through the system has dropped dramatically to just over 200 teachers, but a new kind of rubber room has emerged in its place.

It lives now in broom closets, unused offices — even stinky locker rooms — in school buildings all over the city.

“You start to go a little crazy,” said former Bronx middle school teacher Michael Portnoy, 43, who earned more than $78,000 for sitting in a dark, unused girls’ locker room for 13 months until being fired last spring over what he said was an argument with his principal.

Portnoy, who is appealing his firing from Middle School 142, began each day by getting a few hours’ sleep in a beach chair while mice scurried past him on the concrete floor, he said.

He battled boredom by sticking a miniature batting cage to a peeling wall and taught himself how to pitch a softball.

“You ever see anyone in solitary confinement? It was awful,” said Portnoy, who taught in city schools for 14 years. “I wouldn’t go back there for anything.”

Officially called “reassignment centers,” rubber rooms have been around for years, populated by teachers who face disciplinary charges but are allowed to remain on the payroll by a union contract that gives them the right to a hearing before they can be fired.

Before the major rubber room reform in 2010, teachers routinely waited two years for a hearing as massive administrative holding pens overflowed with increasingly disgruntled teachers who read books, taught themselves to knit and led yoga classes at taxpayer expense.

Dating back about a decade since the city overhauled its disciplinary process for firing teachers, they came to be called “rubber rooms” because inmates said they went crazy bouncing off the walls.

“This was an absurd and expensive abuse of tenure,” Mayor Bloomberg said when he announced the new reforms in April 2010. “We’ve been able to solve what was one of the most divisive issues in our school system.”

At the time, teachers union boss Michael Mulgrew crowed that the new agreement would shepherd in a “faster and fairer process.”

And the process has improved.

A flood of new arbitrators slashed the waiting time for a hearing from two years to three to six months, and the number of teachers in purgatory dropped significantly.

The total population fluctuates from one day to the next, but on an average day, there are roughly 200 teachers in limbo, officials say — a tiny portion of more than 75,000 teachers on the payroll.

Last week, the tally of rubber-roomed teachers reached 218.

Their salaries and benefits alone will cost taxpayers $22 million this year, but that’s only some of the cost. The city is shelling out thousands more to pay substitute teachers to cover their classrooms.

But while the big reforms announced in 2010 were supposed to put an end to idle teachers doing nothing, today’s rubber room residents say they’re as unproductive as ever.

Bloomberg said they would be given work to do such as answering phones or planning curriculum — anything that didn’t involve working with children — but several teachers say they’ve mostly just stewed.

“It’s boredom — a cruel and unusual punishment,” said Francesco Portelos, who made headlines this month for broadcasting a live Web video of himself surfing the Internet from a rubber room.

Teacher Francesco Portelos blogged and produced live Web video of himself surfing the Net while spending five months in limbo in 'rubber rooms' in Queens.

A science instructor from Staten Island’s Intermediate School 49, Portelos has been kept in rubber rooms for more than five months for allegedly hacking into his school’s website, conducting a real estate business during class time, and tampering with the investigations into his allegedly improper activities.

For the first two months, Portelos was stuck in the bleak basement copy room of an Ozone Park, Queens, office building, where he whiled away the hours by boning up on labor law and blogging about his case.

Education officials then moved him to an empty conference room in the same building, where he broadcast hours of video showing him pecking away at his laptop.

After the city learned of his webcam, Portelos was told to shut it down and work on lesson plans for his classes.

He continues to draw his yearly salary of $75,000.

Former Brooklyn teacher Christine Rubino said she was assigned to an empty cubicle in an administration building for five months and once was told to count all the chairs in the six-story building.

“There were 800 of them,” Rubino said. “They told me they needed to know how many, in case there was a meeting . . . . It was the only job they gave me that month.”

After Rubino tallied all the chairs in the dingy downtown Brooklyn building, she returned to her desk, where she collected her $75,000 salary and surfed the Internet while awaiting the outcome of her case.

The elementary school teacher at Brooklyn’s Public School 203 was fired after making a joke about drowning her students on Facebook.

In June 2010, a day after a 12-year-old Harlem girl drowned on a school trip to a Long Island beach, Rubino ranted online: “After today, I am thinking the beach sounds like a wonderful idea for my 5th graders! I HATE THEIR GUTS!”

She was fired a year later but successfully sued to get her job back. The city has appealed the verdict that went her way in February, so she remains unemployed while her case makes its way through the courts.

Education officials claim that since no more than about a dozen mothballed instructors are holed up at any one address, the rubber rooms no longer exist.

“For some teachers, while that clock is ticking, they shouldn’t be in the classroom,” said city Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott. “That’s nothing to be fixed, that’s part of an agreement.”

Mulgrew wouldn’t comment on individual teachers who said they weren’t given work to do in rubber rooms, but said the current system is better than the one it replaced.

“The system has been working much better than anything we have had before,” Mulgrew said. “We did not want a system where people were sitting there. We wanted a fast and fair system.”

The union has not yet formally objected to conditions in the new “solitary confinement” rubber rooms.

“We signed this agreement in good faith with the city and we expect them to follow it. Fast and fair is all we ask,” he said.

With Corinne Lestch




Michael Portnoy specifications
Michael Portnoy opinion and award
Michael Portnoy Petition
Michael Portnoy transcripts

bchapman@nydailynews.com

Steve Ostrin outside the Brooklyn Rubber Room at 25 Chapel Street, Brooklyn, NY

Teachers Set Deal With City on Discipline Process
By JENNIFER MEDINA, NY TIMES, Published: April 15, 2010
LINK