I know the real story off the newest horror from the DOE, the case of Carisa Gaylardo, from speaking with the female student cited in this story. Give this excellent, hard-working teacher back her job, and give her tenure, Carmen. NYC students need her.
Betsy Combier
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| Carisa Gaylardo, top right inset, a teacher at Riverdale Kingsbridge Academy, claims Sofia Memos, bottom right inset, propositioned her by text messages and in person to engage in inappropriate romantic activities. |
A former probationary gym teacher at the small public school says she was fired because she refused to have a girl-girl-guy threesome with another gym teacher and the teacher’s boyfriend last year, according to a new lawsuit.
Carisa Gaylardo claims the teacher, Sofia Memos, propositioned her by text messages and in person, seeking “to engage in an inappropriate romantic and salacious relationship with her and her boyfriend,” says the suit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Gaylardo spurned Memos’s alleged advances. But one month later Memos and another gym teacher took revenge, joining in concocting a false story about Gaylardo exchanging “inappropriate texts” with a female high school student, the lawsuit alleges.
Gaylardo’s suit admits there was a series of texts between herself and the female student.
But the suit does not detail the number or content of the texts — only that the allegedly vengeful fellow gym teachers gave them to the office of the Special Commissioner of Investigation, which issued a report finding the texts were inappropriate.
Gaylardo was fired based on “simply on the frequency of communications she engaged in” with the student, she complains.
“No student reported any inappropriate relationship … other than the two teachers with a substantial motive to lie against [Gaylardo,]” she alleges.
Gaylardo’s suit demands that the Department of Education reinstate her job, and that the city pay her back pay plus unspecified monetary damages.
“We will review the lawsuit and respond accordingly,” a Law Department spokesperson said.
“There are only positive things that I can say about Ms. Gaylardo,” the girl’s mom, Kefser Rugova, wrote in an affidavit supporting the canned gym teacher’s suit.
“She has a strong ambition and a caring heart and taught my daughter to be strong,” the mom wrote.
The daughter wrote in her own affidavit, “I am a multi-sport athlete, and my athletic and academic commitments can, at times, become overwhelming. Ms. Gaylardo was not only my mentor in school, but provided me with much support as I was and am dealing with the pressures of high school.”
She added, “all of my communications with Ms. Gaylardo were not only approved of by my mother, Kefser Rugova, but encouraged.”
Gaylardo “helped me grow and change for the better, and she has done for many other students as well … Ms. Gaylardo has done nothing wrong. It is a travesty that she has lost her job because she was a mentor and support for me. It is wrong that such a good person as she is suffering simply for helping me with my struggles.”
Bronx gym teacher was fired after refusing to have threesome with her boss and her boyfriend: suit
Carisa Gaylardo says in her Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit that she was fired from Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy after Sofia Memos triggered an investigation into her relationship with a student after Gaylardo refused Memos' offer to have a threesome with her and her boyfriend.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
A Bronx gym teacher says she was canned because she didn't like her boss’ math: Teacher + boss + boss’ boyfriend = threesome.
Carisa Gaylardo, formerly a probationary physical education teacher at the Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy, charges in court papers that she was given an unsatisfactory rating and ultimately canned after she rejected the repeated kinky offers from tenured gym teacher Sofia Memos.
According to Manhattan Supreme Court papers, the spurned supervisor then surreptitiously triggered a Department of Education investigation into Gaylardo’s “flirtatious” relationship with one of her students - a teen Gaylardo was mentoring.
Memos made the bogus allegations in March 2013, just one month after Gaylardo “had rejected her advances,” her lawsuit said, and the probe effectively ended her six-year career in the New York City school system.
The investigation found Gaylardo and the teen had traded 1,000 text messages between February and March of 2013.
Gaylardo told investigators there was nothing untoward about the texts — the student played three sports, and was desperate for advice on how to balance athletics and school.
The teen told investigators there was no inappropriate behavior, and that her parents were well aware of their relationship.
Both the girl and her mother filed affidavits supporting the teacher.
“It is wrong that such a good person...is suffering simply for helping me with my struggles,” the teen wrote.
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Sofia Memos |
Her mom called Gaylardo “a blessing to my daughter and the rest of our family.”
“She is the greatest role model in my daughter's life,” the mom wrote.
Gaylardo said she was pressured to resign based on the sheer number of the texts — and didn’t find out about Memos’ role in the investigation until a departmental hearing last month.
That’s when she found out Memos had filed a written complaint saying, “I have observed a rapport between them that had made me feel uncomfortable."
Memos suggested that their behavior was “flirtatious,” and “Gaylardo’s unprofessionalism has only encouraged it by allowing (the student) to come into our office on many occasions to just chat. I have witnessed them giggling and laughing together many times,” the complaint said.
Gaylardo said in her suit the supervisor’s charges were “false and particularly curious and disconcerting because Memos herself had actually propositioned (Gaylardo) by text message and in person to engage in an inappropriate romantic and salacious relationship with her and her boyfriend.”
Gaylardo said the DOE was not interested in Memos’ ulterior motives, and that as a result of the allegations, she was ultimately given an Unsatisfactory rating, retroactively canned and put on a list of people not eligible to teach in city schools “simply on the frequency of communications without any finding of inappropriate contact or intent.”
“It is tragic that (Gaylardo) lost her career and livelihood . . . because she was overzealous in helping a student struggling with the pressure of high school,” her suit says.