This one speaks for itself
Why does it take for a NY teacher to lose her teaching license?
Not this, apparently:
In August, Dori Myers, 30, who was arrested in January 2018, pleaded guilty to a criminal sex act for performing oral sex on the [14-year-old male] student in November 2017 at the New School for Leadership and the Arts in Kingsbridge where she taught social studies…
The school then fired her.
On Wednesday, the court labeled her a Level 1 sex offender, but the plea agreement that was struck jettisoned prosecutors’ request for a minimum of two years in prison.
As part of her plea agreement, Myers also got to keep her teaching certificate. Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for the state Office of Court Administration, stated, “Each case is decided on its own merits. Whatever the negotiated plea entailed, all parties agreed to it.”
This was the argument used to ask that she keep her license:
Defense lawyer Andrew Stoll said Myers will be fired by the city Department of Education “and won’t be working for them anymore,” but asked the judge not to make her give up her license, according to a court transcript obtained by The Post.
“There is a possibility that she could teach adults now or in the future and we want to preserve that possibility,” Stoll said. “She still is a talented teacher and has those skills, and I don’t see any reason to destroy her ability to make a living and to contribute to society in a positive way.”
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that a license is a license is a license. I don’t think that New York issues “adults only” teaching licenses, nor is it alleged that Myers has one.
And there are ways other than teaching for her to earn a living and “contribute to society in a positive way.” As far as I’m concerned, she’s clearly forfeited her right to teach.
“‘As part of her plea agreement, Myers also got to keep her teaching certificate.'” [quoted by Neo above]
Not only is this no different than allowing a bishop/priest remain a bishop/priest after an illegal sexual incident, it’s even worse because this is not being done undercover but being requested publicly as though it is some kind of “right”. Ruin a priest but keep a teacher? Does this redefine chutzpah or stupidity or both?
Very interesting situation, I have very double standards when it comes to having a male in his late 20’s take sexual advantage of a 14 year old girl or boy and a female in her late 20’s messing around with a 14 year old boy. Size and strength to me indicate that in the case of the young man he was not taken by force and all that. Not that many years ago this would have been laughed about with the kid being considered lucky and the teacher, in her photos in not bad looking either, being free spirited.
Having said all that I don’t think she should be able to retain her teaching license because she is too damn dumb and she was rather stupid when she got caught. I see this more as a stupid offense rather than a sexual crime but she should have been totally aware of the law and that making a 14 year old boy lucky is a criminal offense.
If Dori really needed a younger man to liven up her life she would have been exercising better judgement to pick an 18 year old that was out of high school and then made him her lucky recipient of her Dori affection. Had she done that and been caught she would only be required to square things up with her husband and friends and neighbors for being a creepy older lady.
Yep, too stupid to be a teacher.
When someone does the time after having done the time, they should have all forfeited rights restored.
Gun rights, voting rights, debt paid.
That’s not to say that records should be sealed.
Let any future employer judge whether they should hire her and for what position, having done due diligence.
Nothing new in New York or any other state with strong teacher unions.
New York has had rubber rooms for years which they were supposed to have ended but of course haven’t.
“Rubber rooms” are for teachers who are in the process of getting fired for cause–they get full pay and benefits to do nothing, or meaningless work.
“Since the rubber room agreement, the only substantive change has been that there are no longer large rooms filled with reassigned teachers. Teachers are typically reassigned within their own schools, or to other Department of Education buildings throughout the city. Although teachers are now being charged more quickly, it still takes several years to complete the hearing process and for the arbitrator to render a decision. Many teachers are subsequently brought up on “3020-a” charges, which refer to the section of the New York State education law dealing with the discipline of tenured teachers. Unlike any other school district in New York State, no independent panel must vote to prefer charges against a tenured teacher in New York City. The 3020-a trial is held before an independent arbitrator, who is paid by the New York State Education Department but is selected jointly by the New York City Department of Education and the United Federation of Teachers.
In June 2012 it was revealed that the New York State Education Department had not paid its arbitrators for several years, and collectively owed them millions of dollars for cases they had completed, or were in the process of hearing. In frustration, ten of the 24 arbitrators on the New York City panel have quit, while the remaining 14 refuse to hear any testimony or issue any decisions until their back wages have been paid in full. This could take several more years to negotiate, further exacerbating the backlog of reassigned teachers.”
Inappropriate Sex education.
Forget it Jake…it’s New York.
She ticks all the boxes.
Female
Attractive
Union
Of course she keeps her license.
Next thing we know she’ll be having a kid by one of her students & enjoying royalties from a made-for-TV-movie.
I remember when the first one of these was reported — it was in France about 40 years ago. Even made the New Yorker. It was a huge scandal. Now it happens every week. (At least in the US — I wonder if it happens as frequently in France.) Either there’s some mysterious ailment affecting the virility of teachers’ husbands, or this is just another example of the decadence, total immorality, and madness which is sweeping the country.
Big deal..
been going on for ages
guys complained for ages..
at least he didn’t have sex with her and have to pay the teacher child support
there are a few places online that keep lists (like the hoax lists).
maybe he was a slow student and she was giving him extra tutoring and they forgot to bring a banana to use…
How the law punishes boys who are raped: Column – Published 7:50 p.m. ET Sept. 3, 2014
in nyc they are called rubber rooms..
City pays exiled teachers to snooze as ‘rubber rooms’ return
they called them that back when i was a kid and the board of ed was just starting… Beginning in the late 1960s, schools were grouped into districts……
We can snicker and talk about “getting lucky” and even wish (secretly) that one of our teachers when we were 14 had offered us oral sex, but all of that aside, I think there are two things here that we need to admit:
– the age difference and the authority of the teacher give her an enormous power differential that will have a lasting influence on the boy and what he will forever think about sexual relations after that, and
– there is something inherently disturbing about a 30-year-old woman initiating sexual contact with a 14-year-old boy, just as there is if the sexes are reversed. What I mean by wrong is that the age difference at that point is vastly more than it would be for a 16 year age difference if one of the parties were 65, for example. The 14 year old is still an immature boy. He is not “getting lucky,” he’s being exploited. I have talked to victims of just this kind of exploitation, and they are permanently scarred.
SO — what to do with the teacher? Definitely lift her teacher’s credentials. Additionally, brand her as a sexual offender who has to register everywhere she lives and keep her away from juveniles. We would do that for a man, so it is sexism if we do NOT do it for a woman.
“There is a possibility that she could teach adults now or in the future and we want to preserve that possibility”
Yea, I’m with you Neo – this is a completely false statement! No state that I know of requires a “certificate” to teach adults. It is up to the school or organization if they want someone to teach adults – no government approval needed.
The teaching cert is only for K-12. Now if she wanted to teach a specialty (say medicine) then, yes, she would need a different “cert” for that; but, her cert that she is being allowed to keep isn’t for such a specialty; except K-12. Which she shouldn’t be allowed to do any more.
Not defending her actions, but the article states she has to register as a class 1 sex offender. Hopefully that would disqualify her from any job teaching minors. If that’s true, then it seems reasonable to allow her to earn a living teaching adults. What she did was wrong, I hope the boy is not psychologically harmed, but if she’s repentant she ought to be free to work with adults.
Something’s wrong with this article. The criminal court that sentenced this teacher has no power over the decision whether she’ll get to keep her teaching license. That’s up to the State Department of Education, which investigates “moral character” complaints when a teacher is convicted of a crime or has otherwise done something fishy, and makes the decision whether to revoke the teacher’s certificate or impose some other penalty. It’s an administrative process that is completely separate from the criminal sentence. (I used to serve on our local school board and encountered a couple of incidents like this.)
I have no idea why this subject was even discussed at the teacher’s sentencing. Maybe the prosecution asked the court to make a recommendation to the Department, or tried to get the teacher to agree to surrender her license as a condition of the plea, or some such thing. But that wouldn’t have any legal effect on the Department’s process one way or the other. There’s another article about the same teacher here that reports that the judge simply said that the licensing decision is up to the Department.
No matter what the judge did or didn’t do, the chance that the teacher will ever work in a school again is vanishingly small. Getting labeled as a registered sex offender in New York is serious business. Registered sex offenders have to report their addresses and other info to law enforcement at regular intervals for 20 years or for the rest of their lives, depending on the severity of the crime. School districts get notified of the names and addresses of resident sex offenders, and the more severe sex offenders are listed online. Offenders generally can’t work as school bus drivers or in child care centers and can be banned from setting foot on school grounds or, in some cases, from living near schools. All teachers have to pass criminal background checks before they’re licensed in the first place and when they take on new employment. Et cetera, et cetera.
None of this is intended to express any sympathy whatsoever for the teacher — but this kind of misreporting is pretty rough on public confidence in the courts. Whether it comes from simple ignorance or a cynical eagerness to fan outrage and gather page views, I don’t know, but it’s maddening when journalists get things so wrong.
I read The Onion before coming to this site. I have started to realize that everything I read after The Onion sounds like it came from The Onion. What a sad commentary on our society.
Mrs Whatsit,
An important distinction. Thank you.
” . . . it’s maddening when journalists get things so wrong.”
See the Gell-Mann effect (especially the Michael Crhchton quote):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gell-Mann_amnesia_effect
“And there are ways other than teaching for her to earn a living”
Well, evidently yes, based on the actions that got her fired. *eyeroll*
Either we’re a Republic, with Equal Justice Before The Law, or we’re not –
Which is it?
I taught in in the early 70s at a blue state Community College and one of my male colleagues was caught receiving oral sex from a female student in one of the classrooms. He was tenured and not fired and continued on teaching but it was impossible to meet his eye when I encountered him. I left shortly after and don’t know how it all worked out. The female student was of age evidently, so in the 70s it was probably quite a different matter. He was married and it was on college property, but in those days I think an unmarried male teacher could have a affair with a student as long as they kept it away from the flagpole – as they say in the military. I think the same would have applied to female teachers too in principle, if not in practice. I’m old fashioned enough to feel that if it is between consenting adults and both are unmarried, then it just isn’t anyone else’s business.
I am going to be the contrarian on this one. None of us know the exact circumstances of this or any other sexual misconduct or criminal case. The Prosecutors in these cases get as close to the real story as anyone can. If he or she comes to a resolution that all parties agree to (with the prosecutor representing the interests of the people of NY), I am not inclined to second guess them.
I am against mandatory sentencing laws for the same reasons. In general, in business, the trend is to push decision making down to the lowest level possible. The idea being that the people closest to the problem are more likely to make effective decisions. In government, we have gone in the opposite direction. I think government needs to hire good people and let them do their jobs instead of handcuffing them and assuring that true justice cannot be served.
When I was 17 I was seduced by an attractive 36 year old woman. I didn’t really like her that much but didn’t feel like I could turn her down. It’s a fantasy, right? She looked somewhat like Jane Fonda, and came on very strong. (She was married to the 54 year old VP of a company where I had a summer job.)
It was the worst sexual experience I ever had in my life. I’m not going to go into salacious details as to why it was so bad, but she was very bossy and wanted to shock me whenever she could.
She moved on from me to a 15 year old and told me on the phone, “I guess I just really like soft skin.”
@Richard Saunders on September 14, 2018 at 5:43 pm:
“I remember when the first one of these was reported — it was in France about 40 years ago … (… I wonder if it happens as frequently in France.) ”
French President Emanuel Macron is 40 years old (almost 41). His wife Brigitte is 64. They met when he was fifteen and she was a teacher at his high school, married with three children (two of them older than Macron). She left her husband for Macron three years later. (Ten years later, they divorced and she married Macron.)
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