The NYC Department of Education and UFT Lie About "Undue Burden" and Lack of Accommodations For the Unvaccinated

From Betsy Combier:

If you are a teacher in NYC and have been fired because you never were vaccinated with the COVID vaccine, you should know how the UFT and the NYC Department of Education "DOE" have been lying to you about your being an "undue burden" for wanting to keep your job. Many lawyers are also not addressing this sufficiently, in my opinion.

Let me be less harsh on the lawyers - they just did not do their homework. Instead, they were crushed by the City Law Department's insistance that the termination of unvaccinated teachers was due to a lack of remote positions within the DOE, or an "undue burden" in keeping unvaccinated teachers on salary. No one researched that? Yet, for the past 20+ years educators accused of something are reassigned to a place fondly called the "Rubber Room," and they are still doing it today. Let me qualify what I mean by "place" - to me, the Rubber Room is a process of fraud and corruption that frames employees of the NYC Department of Education by claiming false charges in order to terminate their employment or at least extort money from them by way of a settlement.

So, why did I write "fondly"? Because since I first was let in through the backdoor at the reassignment room located at 25 Chapel Street, 10th Floor, in 2003, I have met my closest friends and learned what not to do if you want to survive in the NYC cesspool called education. As an investigative reporter and not on salary to any union (exception: three years as a UFT Special Representative 2007-2010) or the NYC DOE, I was then, and am now, able to tell you what I have found out without being told to be quiet. Except by the people I write about, of course. I also have 4 children who were all in the NYC DOE System and are now working and married (at least 2 of them), and am very fortunate to have a fear of no one. I cannot be bullied, threatened or forced to do something that I feel compromises justice, safety, health or general well-being. ...of myself or anyone else I am honored to assist. 

So when I write about the Rubber Rooms, I am writing about all of the above, but because the rooms are actual places, it is easier to use "place" for the rubber room even though I mean the whole complicated, ugly, and beautifully human process behind the front door.

Employees sit in these rooms and are given no work, but receive their full salary. I knew one teacher, the late Alan Rosenfeld, who was in such a place for more than 13 years. The medium time currently is 1-2 years. The DOE knows that they have these rooms scattered throughout NYC, all boroughs. 

By the way. The Post article on Alan was incorrect about his case and character. My information about his 3020-a arbitration case is that the DOE failed to prove anything but did not want him back in a classroom. Secondly, Alan was a character from a great movie. He was an attorney, so he sat at his table in the rubber room at 25 Chapel Street and talked to his "clients" - the teachers also placed there - about their problems with employment and real estate. Alan sure liked to talk! Every week, sometimes several times/week, when I visited this location I sat with him and listened. It was better not to talk, you were interrupting him. I was very fond of Alan and he beat the system, so kudos to him!  He finally retired in 2012 and died in 2015 of cancer.

Since the COVID Vaccine Mandate started in 2021, no lawyer argued that the terminations were disciplinary because of the Problem Code placed on every personnel file of an employee who did not get vaccinated. This was a serious error, in my opinion. I am not a lawyer.

I was asked by the lawyers in Kane-Keil to write a Declaration on the Problem Code in June 2022, but the Code was never argued in the Complaint, so there was no Appeal. That's why the Problem Code was not mentioned in the final decision of the Court at the Court of Appeals. However, Attorney John Bursch put the Problem Code into the media big time when he did oral argument at the New York State Court of Appeals in February 2023. He had my Declaration in his hands. Thank you, Mr. Bursch!

I have been, and continue to be, very upset about the lack of attention in the Federal Court cases to the lack of due process and failure to accommodate by the NYC DOE. I would have gladly detailed the information I have with anyone. Fortunately, many people are proceeding with actions on their own.

The Hidden Rubber Rooms of New York City Create a Fiscal Nightmare

Betsy Combier 

President at ADVOCATZ

August 20, 2020

The Hidden Rubber Rooms of New York City Create a Fiscal Nightmare

by Betsy Combier, Linkedin

In 2010, the eight warehouses that had the nickname "rubber rooms" were closed due to news reports of hundreds of education personnel sitting in remote places getting paid their full salary to do nothing. I had started visiting the reassignment centers ("Rubber Rooms") in 2003, starting with the invitation by teacher David Pakter, who was assigned the TRC at 25 Chapel Street, 10th Floor. 

When I started working at the UFT in 2007, I simultaneously started talking and writing on this Blog about the rubber rooms in order for the plight of the enclosed tenured teachers to become visible to the paying public. This idea, that millions of public dollars were being spent to keep people out of their classrooms doing non-teaching activities, was a political nightmare for Mayor Bloomberg and the NYC Department of Education. I told Mayor Mike about it, and he was horrified.

Thus it came to be that since 2003 I have been listening to the stories and working as an advocate at the due process hearings of reassigned educators. For three of those years 2007-2010, I was a UFT Special Representative. I found everything about the NYC rubber rooms to be fascinating. Each location was unique because of the number and character of the people placed there while they waited for their hearing, a 3020-a arbitration mandated by Education Law, and their tenured status. Tenured educators cannot be fired for any reason without a due process hearing on the allegations of incompetency or misconduct. All employees in these rooms stayed at the location for the regular school day with 30-45 minutes for lunch. These times were monitored by the principal placed in each room. I know one teacher in a rubber room in the Bronx who studied for the LSAT while sitting in her reassignment, and now is a practicing attorney. To pass the time, classes in everything from cooking to the law were given every day, depending on the license or interest of the people in each location.

However, placing about 1500 education personnel in rooms away from students for 1 to 15 years simply could not be sustained. In my opinion, must not remain. Holding a public employee on a full salary in a room without justification is more than bad public policy. It's also can be demeaning and malicious. There are many who enjoy being paid their salary and not being harassed by a principal or co-worker.

An important fact is that people in the rubber rooms were organizing. Demands were made by the displaced employees, starting in 2008, to form chapters for “rubber roomers”, and to elect unofficial chapter leaders in each location. Neither the Department nor the UFT wanted to legitimize the rubber rooms in this way.

Under pressure from an angry public, the UFT and the DOE signed an agreement on April 15, 2010, to clear these now very visible examples of fiscal absurdity by speeding up the resolution of charges at hearings known as 3020-a arbitration. No one has paid any attention to either letter agreement, then or now.

NYC promised to ban teacher ‘rubber rooms’ — they went underground instead

NYC hired a roster of arbitrators to hear the cases quickly, but many of the accused fought termination rather than settle, retire or resign, and most wanted witnesses to testify on their behalf. Some hearings are lengthy -- one recent case took 32 days and nine months of hearing dates, not including the decision). The time limits are not enforced.

Then there is the shocking case of Alan Herz. he was charged with two so-called "inappropriate" comments to his students, neither of which, in my opinion, warranted anything more than maybe a slap on the wrist. However, some DOE employee somewhere wanted Alan fired, and he was served 3020-a charges, thus highlighting what I believe is the main problem with the entire disciplinary procedure: the charging, pre-3020-a hearing process. His Attorney informed the arbitrator that the school investigator did not file his report until two years after a student accused the teacher of 'insulting' her. This is a blatant violation of procedure, which requires that any report written by an investigator must be completed within six to 12 months. The arbitrator did the correct thing, as all arbitrators should, and dismissed the case at the pre-hearing, citing the procedural error. Within 10 days the NYC DOE sued the arbitrator in the NY State Supreme Court for dismissing the case so quickly. The Judge dismissed the City’s lawsuit. What this case shows is that arbitrators must do what the Department wants, and that is to prosecute the accused, even if innocent. Speed, facts, and law have no relevance.

I think you can see my point, which is that all decisions made before a 3020-a case begins are random and arbitrary. The NYC DOE honors no rules, regulations, or law when an employee does something that a 'higher up' is embarrassed by, or doesn't like for any reason. The procedures for disciplinary action against tenured employees beg for accountability and mediation of the proposed charges before an arbitrator is appointed and paid to hear the case to decide the penalty. Under these conditions, false charges are justified and unlawfully validated. All an arbitrator has to do is find the DOE witnesses 'credible' and the witnesses and charged employee, or "Respondent", 'not credible'. The penalty of termination is then the 'only' outcome. 

This frame-up is a process designed and used by the NYCDOE, UFT and CSA lawyers, intentionally. All parties violate the rights of the people they are supposed to serve. 

When I do a 3020-a arbitration, arbitrators are challenged, because I and the lawyer I work with (outside of NYC I do these hearings often without an attorney, similar to PERB litigation) are not bound by the restrictions placed on NYSUT attorneys who must comply with the sham.

[Added by Betsy 2025: I remember  an arbitrator telling me several years ago, after he exonerated the Respondent I was advocating for, that he was so fed up with the system where he was "supposed" to terminate everyone, that he decided he would exonerate everyone instead. Yep, he was removed from the arbitration panel by the DOE. In fact, several arbitrators told me off the record that they were told they had finished their service on the panel because they were too "lenient" as they did not terminate every Respondent. I never reveal my sources, so don't ask].

The political ‘solution’ was, and still is, to spread out the accused or allegedly guilty employees here and there -- in school offices, basements, storage or copy rooms -- anywhere hidden from view. The rubber rooms have gone underground. No one knows who these new rubber roomers are, because school and central budgets do not have a category for “reassigned” or “suspended” personnel.

The hiding of the reassignment rooms and process is very clear in the 3020-a hearings. Here is one example: in a 2019 case, whenever a witness or the NYSUT attorney mentioned anything about the accused teacher being "reassigned", the Department attorney Seyi Collins-Jemmott prosecuting the case told the transcriber/reporter,

"MS. JEMMOTT: [Interposing] I am--the Department is going to ask that the reference made by opposing counsel to respondent being reassigned be stricken from the record."

Ms. Collins-Jemmott interjected this whenever anyone mentioned "rubber room" or "reassignment", to hide the fact that the charged educator had spent almost a year as a reassigned teacher.

In 2009 I wrote:
The "Gotcha Squad" and the New York City Rubber Rooms

In 2010 I wrote about the scattering of rubber roomers throughout NYC:

Teachers in NYC Rubber Rooms Are Now Scattered So That The NYC Board of Education Can Hide The Harm and Retaliation

In 2014 I wrote about the new rubber rooms' and the rules:
The NYC DOE Re-Assignment Policy Issued in 2010

Then, in 2017 we heard the exact same lie about teachers in the Absent Teacher Reserve or ATR pool:

City Will Move Sidelined Teachers From Limbo to Classrooms

The Department benefits from hiding the rubber rooms by not being subjected to public outrage for the waste of public funds. The UFT benefits from hiding the rubber rooms because they are saved from public ridicule for keeping "bad" teachers on salary while they are reassigned to do nothing. Everyone wins but the general public and the parents and children in the schools.

When a teacher is reassigned, who takes his/her place? Anyone who is available - a substitute teacher, uncertified para, ATRs, no one is watching. Kids often have their entire school record jeopardized because their teacher is suddenly absent. The reassigned teacher is not permitted any contact with students, and the substitute is not knowledgeable about the subject or the kids. 

But my point is that there are ATRs still sitting in schools citywide. I spoke with one of these in-school reassigned teachers this morning, May 29, 2025. The unvaccinated employees could have been removed to a Rubber Room - which today is, often, home, while the ATRs took their place. 

See: Absent Teacher's Reserve Agreement Reached

Clearly, the NYC Department of Education has a long history of paying employees not to work for many reasons for several years. They have accepted this "undue burden" and have created an employment category just for these people.

The saying "throw the largest amount of mud at the wall hoping something will stick" is right on the mark. However, the most outrageous part of this whole public hoax is the fact that none of the charges need to be true, but the public has to pay for it. And, there is no accountability and no consequences for false charges.

The take-away is that this entire boondoggle is random, subject to whims and fancy, dislike and discrimination, rather than planning and human capital management.

The psychology of lack of ownership for wasting public funds is well-documented. Every elected official has had to deal with "If it's not coming out of my own pocket, who cares?", "Who is going to find out? I'm protected from prosecution", "it's my job to get bad teachers out of the building", etc.

NYC needs to refine the charging process so that public money is used effectively to root out the truly bad while supporting the wrongly charged and consequences for those who pursued false charges.

We also must end the hidden rubber rooms and make these places visible so that public money can be allocated appropriately, and publicly. Give all educators relevant work to do in accordance with their license while they sit in the "rubber room" for a short amount of time, no more than needed to get an arbitrator and hearing date. Give the public a say in where their money goes.

Our educators deserve better.

By the way, the picture used by the POST in my op-ed is a great hero of mine, for resilience and his fighting spirit. His name is David Suker. He was charged with putting a false home address for himself when he registered his daughter for a school on the Upper West Side. He did not do what he was accused of, but in addition, by the time he was charged 10 years had passed. I know that any investigation into a student's real address must be completed within 30 days, and no one can be charged 10 years later. But in the random and arbitrary procedures used in NYC to discipline and/or terminate tenured educators, the laws of NY State have no relevance.

David Suker's NYSUT Attorney Steve Friedman did not know or care to know that the residence requirement charge was bogus, and David was terminated. David called me up after receiving his penalty of termination and asked for my help in his Article 75 Appeal, which I agreed to do with Attorney Maria Chickedanz. We won $250,000.00 for him as well as his job back. Love this guy.

Betsy Combier, betsy.combier@gmail.com

Editor, ADVOCATZ.com

*********************************************************

Below, you can see how the Daily News misinforms the public with platitudes designed to cite one side of the issue, i.e. that the NYC Department of Education and the United Federation of Teachers want all accused employees fired without due process. The UFT and DOE "fixed" this in NYC by hiding the new, smaller rubber rooms, and omitting any determination of probable cause. They went straight from making a charge (true or false) against an employee, filing a Letter to File (puts the person on the Problem Code) and pursuing the charge as if it were true, with an arbitrator told to terminate. If the arbitrator doesn't, he/she is fired from the panel. That's how the DOE and UFT "fixed" the rubber rooms' fiscal nightmare.

City to close ‘rubber rooms,’ $30M detention halls for teachers accused of major violations

By Erin Einhorn, Meredith Kolodner and Rachel Monahan

UPDATED: April 8, 2018 at 1:01 AM EDT

The reporters didn't do their due diligence. First, in 2008 there were many more than 99 educators in the 8 rubber rooms. Second, the paragraph below states the reason why Mike Bloomberg "closed" the large centers and hid the reassignment centers: he wanted to pay attorneys to skip over probable cause for specious charges, and go quickly to termination:

"The agreement is not expected to save money immediately since the department will have to hire more lawyers. Education Department officials said they hoped to see some savings down the line as teachers are either returned to the classroom or fired more quickly."

Almost everyone has heard about the termination of educators from the NYC DOE if they did not get vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. The City of New York needed to reduce the education budget, and had to omit due process so that they could fire all the unvaccinated as part of that effort. The NY DOE and the UFT "forgot" to mention the rubber rooms and the Problem Code in their speedy termination procedure. Lawyers also omitted mention of the Problem Code and rubber room reassignments because it seems that no one did their homework. 

In any case, every Federal due process class action Complaint filed since 2021 for unvaccinated educators has been dismissed by the Courts.

We all gotta do something about this. 

Give all unvaccinated terminated teachers their former positions back, AND their back pay, pension time and benefits, car days, everything. Now.

betsy@advocatz.com

Editor, ADVOCATZ.com

Editor, ADVOCATZ Blog

Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, NYC Public Voice

Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials

UPDATE: Educators Accused of Submitting Fake Vaccination Cards Get Their Jobs Back and Backpay

 

UPDATES ON The Alleged “Fake” Vaccination Card Fraud Scheme and 82 Educators Employed By the NYC Department of Education

October 8, 2022 Betsy Combier ADVOCATZ Op-Ed, TEAM ADVOCATZ 0

UPDATE for February 17, 2023: The teachers and administrators accused of submitting “fake” vaccination cards and removed from payroll on April 25, 2022, are now back to work at the NYC DOE. Some moved out-of-state or are working in other non-DOE jobs, but most are back to work, with their backpay:

“We are pleased to report that we have settled the grievance relating to back pay for individuals who were improperly place on leave without pay for allegedly submitting a fraudulent vaccine card.

All such situated individuals will receive payment for the period from April 25, (or your removal from payroll date, whichever is later) to June 30, 2022 (or up to your date of separation, whichever came first) including the proper adjustments to your summer pay disbursement. In addition, you will receive service credit for the period you were on leave without pay, meaning there will be no break in service on your record for that time.

The DOE has already begun the process and should begin issuing checks in the coming weeks. We will update you when we are notified of the pay dates.

This settlement does not resolve any individual grievances that may have been filed with regard to per session work or summer school. If you have filed such a grievance, you will be notified individually of the status of that grievance as it is processed.”

As for Julie Devuono, here is the latest:

UPDATES: The 82 teachers and administrators accused of submitting “fake” vaccination cards to the NYC DOE pursuant to the NYC COVID Mandate and taken off salary on April 25, 2022, are now back on salary and put into a rubber room – reassigned to their homes until further notice. The NYC DOE made a mistake in putting these employees in LWOP (forced “leave without pay”), lost in Court, and gave all those harmed the partial relief of being placed back on salary September 6, 2022. The 82 educators are now fighting to get the backpay owed to them from the day they were removed (April 25, 2022) .

A second happy event occurred on October 4, 2022 when Judge Arlene Bluth denied the NYC DOE’s Petition/Order To Show Cause to throw these 82 educators off of payroll once again. Bluth said no. See DECISION_ORDER Bluth

This matter, and the resulting cases (there are currently 3, see below) are all about due process and the way the NYC Department of Education denies all employees this Constitutional right. In order to win a case, you must detail the denials of due process to the Judge, and hope for the best, but it is indeed distressing to know that the NYC DOE does not care at all about any employee’s rights. If they see “any possibility” that an employee is guilty of something, they will go for termination without any facts.

The NY POST article in today’s paper:

Witnesses in alleged COVID vaccine fraud case put 82 NYC educators in potential legal danger

Julie DeVuono is in danger, that is for sure. The Suffolk County DA arrested her after finding $900,000 in cash in Devuono’s house and receipts for $1.5 million. Two staffers in her office, Wild Child, have evidently agreed to testify against their boss. She could face severe consequences if a jury finds her guilty of vaccine card fraud. See the Legislation signed by Governor Kathy Hochul in December 2021, and the Penal Code, below. But her danger is not connected to the educators’ ‘danger.’ If the Suffolk County DA had found a teacher guilty of fraud, this person would have been charged already. At this time, as far as I know the guilty parties remain Julie and her staff.

The New York City Department of Education decided, on April 19, 2022, that as the Suffolk County DA were charging the owner of Wild Child in Amityville, with fraud, any employee who went there to get a COVID vaccine was also guilty of fraud AND violating the NYC COVID Mandate. This Mandate says that any employee who did not get vaccinated cannot work inside any DOE building. The City Mayor, Eric Adams, in control of the DOE, then made a policy decision to stop all remote learning classes and force students to be inside the DOE buildings now off limits to any unvaxxed employee. This is appalling, but the clearest example of the lack of due process given to anyone that works for the DOE that I have ever seen. Did everyone who went to Wild Child go there to buy a fake vaccination card? Nope, I do not believe that and there is no proof that I have heard about at the present time. The DOE pattern and practice here is to throw the biggest amount of mud at the wall and hope that something sticks.

This is the same as believing that if a complaint is made about a teacher saying something or doing something improper to a student while two paraprofessionals and 18 students were in the room, the teacher AND the two paras must be reassigned and charged, because everyone in the room “did it” or “is complicit” with the miscreant until proven innocent. That’s not how it works. People are innocent until proven guilty.

In my 20+ years of advocacy, I have never seen the DOE accuse and find guilty 100 people of doing something because they were in the same location at different times. That is not rational, in my opinion. Also, why would 100+ people want to jeopardize their careers and/or families by committing a crime? I know some people do illegal things because they think they will never get caught, but those people are not the educators I have spoken with.

Since the beginning of this matter, I have consistently stated the facts as I know them: the educators I have been assisting are innocent of fraudulently submitting a fake vaccination card. Period, end of the story. At this time there is no proof whatsoever that the educators in the case committed fraud. OTHER people who I do not know, who went to Julie to intentionally get a fake card, may be guilty of fraud. But let’s get the proof before we find anyone guilty. That is under the jurisdiction of the Suffolk County D.A. Maybe those people exist. If they do, and they intentionally committed fraud knowing that their career and lives would be changed forever if caught, they deserve to be given a penalty as determined in a court of law. I do not have any facts that anyone bought a fake card, and certainly, I would not hide this fact if I had such information.

Here is the case filed for 30 of the 82 educators in a case on this issue (See PETITION). The educators were kept waiting for the UFT to get the decision of Martin Scheinman on what the procedures should be for all those put on LWOP without due process to get back on salary, asked me what my opinion was, and we decided not to wait.

Why did the UFT hand this responsibility over to Martin Scheinman? The UFT Contract Article 21 is very clear, and so is Education Law 3020: no tenured teacher may be terminated or removed from salary without a due process compulsory arbitration hearing. Luckily, Mr. Scheinman agreed: Scheinman June 27 AWARD. This case would have been harder to win if we had to fight both the NYC DOE and Martin Scheinman. Scheinman is being sued right now in Federal Court (Broecker v NYC Dep’t of Educ., et al., Amended Complaint., INDEX NO. 21-cv-06387) and….well, it gets complicated. The NYC Covid Mandate in NYC has uprooted lives, laws, rules and everything known before as rational thinking. Anyone who could not, or did not, get vaccinated because of medical issues or religious beliefs were put onto the road to termination.

The NYC DOE had no right to put all those people who went to Wild Child into the new category of “Vaccine Non-Compliant”, and remove them from their salary. I am personally not in support of the COVID Vaccine Mandate and want the City to put everyone, all educators, police and firemen, and women back to work. The City needs them.

What is not in doubt, as far as I am concerned, is that the teachers who have spoken with me about this matter are all innocent of fraud, they received the vaccine, and many had reactions afterward.

CSA, the Union for DOE Administrators, also sued the DOE for suddenly removing some of the members accused of the alleged fake vaccination card scheme from salary on April 25, 2022. VERIFIED PETITION.

Another event that popped up concerns the Attorneys for Nicole Broecker who wanted to use the Scheinman June 27 AWARD in their case, because Scheinman’s prior Award dated September 10 (UFT) and Sept. 15 (CSA) – See SCHEINMAN AWARD SEPT 10;   CSA Scheinman Award Sept 15 -created “LWOP” without pay. Scheinman’s new version of leave issued in September came with conditions: you keep your medical benefits if you gave up your right to sue and your right to look for a job (no one was told that each employee was also flagged with the Problem Code). However, Scheinman’s June 27 Award seemed to override this and go for due process before termination. See letter, Graff, to Judge Matsumoto.Graff letter. 

Mallory O. Sullivan submitted an Affirmation (see Sullivan Affirmation) that she works as Deputy Director of the Office of Employee Relations at the NYCDOE, and she cited the “high probability” that there might be a reason to believe that 4 CSA members were guilty of fraud for submitting fake CDC cards to the NYC DOE. Wow. This is quite disturbing, the low standard Ms. Sullivan used to remove 4 administrators from salary without any due process. Ms. Sullivan mentions SCI’s Senior Investigator Gerald Conroy who is “independent” of the NYC DOE and is investigating this matter. See the Conroy Affirmation.

Anyone may go to Seethroughny.net/payrolls and see the employment history and salary of any person employed by the NYCDOE or any City Agency. Here is Mr. Conroy’s salary, paid by the NYC DOE in 2021:

In my opinion, as Mr. Conroy gets paid (at least in 2021, so it could be more by now), $190,554 or more as his salary, he is hardly ‘independent’. This is my opinion, that anyone getting paid that much money does what his employer tells him to do. That’s what I think.

I also have some questions about the ethics of Mallory O. Sullivan. She handles the Problem Code at the Office of Personnel Investigations or OPI. Mallory-problem code.

I have been working on getting DOE employees cleared from having a Problem Code on their fingerprints since I first learned about the Code in 2004. I have been writing about it and representing people who need their names cleared ever since.

The New York City Department of Education’s “Problem Code” is an Unlawful Flag on an Employee’s Fingerprints, Parentadvocates.org

The OPI Problem Code and How To Get Off of It, NYC Rubber Room Reporter

Then in October 2021, when almost 1000 DOE employees would not, could not, or did not get the COVID Vaccine, all were put on leave without Pay (LWOP) and secretly placed on the Problem Code and then fired. Lawyers representing Michael Kane asked me to sign off on a Declaration describing the advocacy work I am doing and have done. I detailed my advocacy as a Special Representative for the UFT from 2007-2010, and how Amy Arundell, in the Office next door to my office, would give me information about who was on the Problem Code and who was not on it. I did not name Amy, because I did not want to put her name into this horrible mix, but she is, indeed, the person I refer to in my Declaration below as being helpful and next door to my office at the UFT.

Betsy Combier declaration

                                                                           Amy Arundell  

I recently found out in August that after I spoke at length about the denial of due process connected with the Problem Code at PERB in several cases where I represent UFT members, the UFT filed an Improper Practice Charge against the NYC DOE, and won a ruling. Amy Arundell, now Borough Chief for the Queens UFT office, testified that she knew nothing about the PC Code until a member told her about it in 2012. I worked at the UFT from 2007-2010, and it was during this time, Amy and I were next door to each other on the 16th Floor of 52 Broadway. UFT headquarters in Manhattan. I left to start my own company, and widen my advocacy to other Unions and nonunion issues. I also sadly realized that the UFT did not support members enough.

What astonishes me the most about this matter with the alleged “fake” vaccination cards and the problem code is the sheer audacity of a public agency (the New York City Department of Education) and a large Union (UFT) hiding a defamatory, demeaning flag on members’ fingerprints and wiping the payroll clear of tenured and untenured teachers simply because someone at the DOE thought that they were all guilty without proof of any misconduct, in violation of State public policy and Education Law 3020-a. I told you it was complicated.

No one, not the Suffolk County District Attorney nor anyone else, has announced that they found evidence of guilt for any of the 82 teachers and administrators and no one has been charged in this group. I believe that each and every one of the educators I have spoken with told me the truth, that they got vaccinated at Wild Child, the office of Julie DeVuono, and their cards are valid. Some told me that they paid for detox pills to lessen the chance of a reaction to the shot. This is reasonable, and I see nothing wrong with that. Holistic remedies give many people peace of mind, and that is good.

Certainly, if anyone buys a card saying they got the COVID vaccine, and they actually paid to get this card and NOT get the vaccine, then that’s a fraud, and the person should be punished.

Since I started advocating for teachers’ rights in 2003, I have often seen charges without proof, terminations without reason or justification, and people harmed in retaliation for being too pretty, too good at their job, too popular, or very bad and abusive towards children. Everyone is guilty, doesn’t matter what the facts and truth are. I have seen many in each category win or lose their jobs based upon the strength or weakness of their defense in arguing violations of fact and law. In NYC, the Department of Education does not care if an employee is excellent at what they do or terrible, and the DOE attorneys do not look at, nor do they seek, probable cause.  If an educator is accused of something, and they do not know the “right people” who can get them free of any charges by making a few telephone calls, then this person can be “reassigned” to an alternate location. When the large warehouses existed in each borough, and I visited them all, I found DOE employees sitting there on full salary, sometimes for 10 years or more.

This cannot be due process, nor is it good practice. The only way out is to suggest that representatives working on a case put 100% effort into winning, every case, all the time. This ain’t easy if you are dealing with the Department of Education, which has, sorry to say, people who do not believe in proof or facts., in my opinion.

Efforts to help the 82 educators “believed” to have been guilty of fraudulently submitting fake vaccination cards to the NYC DOE have been productive, and everyone is back on salary. Now they need to get their backpay as well. According to UFT General Counsel Beth Norton, the UFT has filed a Grievance.

The NYC DOE must comply with the law, and if they do not, they must be held accountable.

See the details on the website of Jeremy Saland:

Fake & Counterfeit COVID Vaccination Cards: New York State Crimes & Penalties

Whether you create a fake Moderna COVID-19 vaccine card from scratch, alter a legitimate one with false information, or even possess a fraudulent Pfizer immunization card purporting to be a real one – knowing it is fictitious and with the intent to defraud – there is a real chance you will eventually find yourself under arrest. Yes, the courtroom may look different if you’re prosecuted in New York City’s criminal courts – Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, Staten Island – or a justice or county court in Westchester, Rockland, or elsewhere in the state, but the charges will be the same. As you stand before the judge with an attorney versed in COVID-related crimes, you’ll hear an officer read off potentially catastrophic crimes, the most serious of which will likely be the felony offenses of Second Degree Forgery or Second Degree Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument, Penal Law 170.10 and 170.25 respectively. In the event you used the “bogus” card and information to secure an Excelsior Pass, for example, you will also likely face arrest and prosecution for First Degree Falsifying Business Records, Penal Law 175.10, and potentially First Degree Offering a False Instrument for Filing, Penal Law 175.35, as well.

THE CRIMES: PENAL LAW 170.10, 170.25, 175.10, & 175.35

The two most common criminal offenses associated with arrests for possessing or selling a false, fraudulent, or counterfeit vaccination card are Second Degree Forgery and Second Degree Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument.

PENAL LAW 170.10

You are guilty of Forgery in the Second Degree, as it relates to COVID-19 vaccine cards, when you falsely make in its entirety or merely complete or alter a “written instrument” which purports to be or upon is completion will be, one or more of the following:

• Any instrument which does or may evidence, create, or impact a legal right or status.
• A public record or instrument that may or must be filed with a public office as a matter of law.
• A written instrument made or issued by a public officer or government instrumentality.

Further, in creating or editing the particular instrument, your goal or objective must also be to deceive or defraud another person.

PENAL LAW 170.25

If Forgery is the making of the falsified item or instrument, Second Degree Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument is the offense the police and prosecutors will charge for actually having the type of altered or fake document referenced above on your person or constructively in your possession.

PENAL LAW 175.10

You are guilty of First Degree Falsifying Business Records if, with the intent to defraud, you cause a false entry to be made into the records of an enterprise whether private or public, or you prevent an accurate entry from being made. While there are multiple subsections in the misdemeanor offense that give rise to the First Degree felony, keep in mind that this felony requires the additional element that you also were trying to commit or conceal another crime at the time of your wrongdoing.

PENAL LAW 175.35

You run afoul of First Degree Offering a False Instrument for Filing when you have a written instrument that you know contains false information that you present to a public official with the belief or knowledge it will be entered into the record of that public office. Like the other crimes, you must do so with the intent to defraud.

THE PENALTIES: POTENTIAL FOR STATE PRISON

Before even addressing the possibility of imprisonment, the first issue you need to come to terms with is the fact that a felony will have drastic and permanent ramifications on future employment, professional licensure and certification, legal status in the United States, and a host of other matters as it relates to loans, credit, and far more. Remember, while a case can potentially be sealed after ten years, New York does not expunge criminal records. In other words, a felony conviction won’t merely go away with the passage of time.

Whether a judge sentences you to a conditional discharge, probation, or something else, understand that upon your plea or conviction post-trial, the court can sentence you up to two and one third to seven years in prison on either class “D” felony of Penal Law 170.10 and 170.25, and up to one and one third to four years in prison on Penal Law 175.10 and 175.35 even if you have no prior history of fraud or misconduct.

HYPOTHETICALS: EXAMPLES OF CRIMINAL CONDUCT

The easiest way to understand the potential arrest or indictment charges associated with fake COVID-19 vaccine cards is if you make one up on your computer that is totally fictitious, or you buy or get your hands on a real card and enter fake vaccine information such as changing a date or adding a second shot to the first real one you received. Remember, the card need not be completely phony. These acts would be considered Forgery. Whether you did it yourself or purchased this document, possessing the card and using it to gain admission or access to a location such as a restaurant or to provide proof to your employer so you can work, you committed Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument. Where things get even more involved, if you then present that written instrument to a government agency or allow the information contained on it to be entered into your employer’s database or to obtain an Excelsior Pass, you will have also committed Falsifying Business Records and Offering a False Instrument for Filing.

Court Says “No” To NYC DOE Injunction That Keeps Teachers With Alleged “Fake” Vax Cards Off Salary

July 8, 2022, Betsy Combier, Advocatz.com

The teachers and Administrators accused of buying their vaccination cards but not actually getting the shot, must be placed back on salary says a Supreme Court Judge.

Judge Arlene Bluth made an important precedent-setting decision today in the matter of the 82 teachers who were suddenly removed from salary on April 25, 2022  because the NYC Department of Education “believed” they had submitted fake vaccination cards when told to send proof of vaccination in September 2021 under the Citywide Vaccine Mandate. Why do I say precedent-setting? Because Judge Bluth said STOP to the Board of Education of the City of New York after they blatantly violated public policy, the UFT and CSA contracts, Constitutional rights under the Fourteenth Amendment, Education Law, as well as countless other state and City laws and rules, by placing 82 people off salary because of a “belief” in their guilt.

Imagine the angst of an employee being accused of committing a felony crime and suddenly placed on leave without pay without any proof or any other information, including when you will be able to tell someone you are innocent and get back on salary.

When I first heard about this I did not believe any of it. Also, Education Law 3020 is very clear on the Constitutional rights to due process:

” No person enjoying the benefits of tenure shall be disciplined or removed during a term of employment except for just cause and in accordance with the procedures specified in section three thousand twenty-a of this article or in accordance with alternate disciplinary procedures contained in a collective bargaining agreement.”

This tenure law was created to stop any principal from suddenly terminating anyone for some nonsensical petty reason.

When Mayoral control took over the NYC Department of Education, Mayor Bloomberg rented huge spaces in District offices around the City ( there were 8 all together, in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and the Bronx) where tenured educators charged by their principal or some other person at the DOE were reassigned and suspended WITH pay sometimes for up to 15 years, while awaiting a 3020-a hearing or after being found guilty but not terminated at a hearing. These rooms became what is known as the “rubber rooms”. People sat in these rooms ON SALARY but suspended from their teaching duties.

On April 25, 2022 the NYC Department of Education went a step further, and unilaterally placed 82 teachers on unpaid leave who had received one or two Pfizer vaccine shots at Wild Child in Amityville. Simply and astonishingly, these 82 people seemed to have been picked randomly and found guilty of the same allegation of wrong-doing as the people cited in a sting operation by the Suffolk County DA – see arrest in suffolk County of Julie Devuono – because they went to the place of the crime.

This seems to me to be similar to someone going to a bank to withdraw money, and suddenly robbers arrive and try to rob the bank. The police see the innocent person and make a connection to the robbers, and arrest the person trying to get a withdrawal.

                                                                            Beth Norton

As soon as the April 19 notice of  pending leave without pay on April 25 was received, the UFT General Counsel Beth Norton (pictured above) wrote Liz Vladeck, General Counsel (pictured below) an email letter which basically said, “stop this ridiculousness immediately, and put all people back on salary until a due process hearing has been held.”

Attorney Norton also filed a UFT Notice of Claim

                                                                            Liz Vladeck

A few of the accused teachers wanted to file a Grievance with the UFT, and heard that they could not file a Grievance, but could request a 3020-a (the emails below were sent and received by a teacher in Brooklyn):

Request for Grievance

No UFT member may request a 3020-a, so I’m not sure what Ms. Carte is doing but I am hopeful that she was just trying to be helpful. However, we have no information from Mr. Levine about whether or not he sent the request for the 3020-a to the Office of Legal Services at the DOE.

On May 3, Beth Norton asked Arbitrator Martin Scheinman to intervene, and he agreed. He issued his Scheinman Award on June 27 (see below), saying that the Department must put everyone back on salary until “guilt” is established:

“Leave without pay is an unusual outcome. Yet, I decided it was appropriate for employees whose requests for a medical or religious exemption were denied. This is because such employees intentionally decided to disregard the mandate they be vaccinated by September 27, 2021, the date established by Commissioner Chokshi and Mayor de Blasio.

Implicit in such a designation of leave without pay is the individual failed to comply with the vaccine mandate. Here, there is a dispute whether the employees did or did not comply. Without that being assessed, or at least submitting evidence to show a high likelihood of non-compliance, the predicate for placing an employee on leave without pay does not exist.”

The DOE immediately filed an Article 75 Appeal to keep all 82 teachers suspended without pay and without any due process, but on July 8, 2022 NY Supreme Court Judge Arlene Bluth decided the DOE was wrong. The DOE and UFT will have another chance to make their arguments to Judge Bluth on July 19, 2022.

Meanwhile, 30 of the 82 teachers could not wait for the UFT or DOE to give them the relief they desperately needed, to be placed back on salary. They sued the NYC DOE in Kings County Supreme on June 30, 2022. I helped them put the case into the very amazing hands of Attorney Chad Laveglia who I asked to comment on all of this and the Scheinman Award issued June 27. He said,

“These teachers followed every instruction they were given. They uploaded their vaccination cards as required. Seven months later, the DOE had the audacity to send them an email placing them on leave without pay.  Significantly, they did so in abrogation of the due process that these teachers are constitutionally and legally entitled to. Due process protects the innocent from determinations of guilt based on nothing more than the whims of the accuser. The DOE has no basis in fact or law to summarily discipline these teachers. The DOE’s arbitrary and unlawful actions will be rectified in court.”

All the unfairly suspended teachers and I are awaiting the next Court date, and we are hopeful that the denial of the Law by the DOE will be stopped, and everyone will be placed back on salary with back pay and any other relief that is just. and proper – including their jobs back!

See the papers in Article 75:

Board of Education of the City School District of the City of New York et al v. United Federation of Teachers, Local 2, AFT, AFL-CIO et al

Index No. 451995/2022

PETITION

Vaccine Mandate August 24

April 19 email

Scheinman Sept 10 Award

Declaration of Impasse

UFT April 21 letter

DOE April 22 letter

UFT May 3 letter

DOE May 4 letter

UFT MAY 6 letter

DOE May 10 letter

UFT May 11 letter

Teachers CBA

2018 Memorandum of Agreement

Scheinman Sept 15 Award

Sheinman Award June 27 2022

DOE-ORDER_TO_SHOW_CAUSE

DOE Affirmation of Good Faith

Proof of Notice to Respondents

UFT MEMORANDUM_OF_LAW

Bluth signed-ORDER_TO_SHOW_CAUSE

STIPULATION of Adjournment

DECISION___ORDER Bluth

Betsy Combier

betsy.combier@gmail.com

Editor, ADVOCATZ.com

Editor, ADVOCATZ Blog

Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, NYC Public Voice
Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials