Pa. Teachers Rehired After Admitting to Having Sex in School, Accusations of Harrasment

In McKeesport, Pennsylvania, Angela DiBattista, a
fourth grade teacher who lost her job in 2011 after admitting to
having sexual relations  in the early 2000s with another
fourth grade teacher, Patrick Collins, also under investigation at
the time, was reinstated for the school year that starts next week.
She was fired being charged with “immorality”
after the two admitted to having sex between six and eight times at
the school after hours.

Collins was fired in 2005 on charges of harassment of DiBattista
and violating school policy, but was “absolved,” reinstated and
able
to retire in 2006. DiBattista’s attorneys maintained she had
been given
immunity for testifying against Collins, something a court
agreed with. An appeals court then overturned her firing.

TribLive reports:

Two state courts ruled that DiBattista was fired without cause
for admitting she had sex with another teacher inside a
classroom.

Commonwealth Court said testimony from the district and
DiBattista’s witnesses at a 2010 disciplinary hearing supported the
conclusion that DiBattista was promised immunity for admitting her
actions with Patrick Collins, a fellow teacher and a former
McKeesport Area Education Association president.

Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer wrote, “The parties mutually intended
that if (DiBattista) agreed to testify she would have no concern or
fear that any district action would be brought against her as a
result of such cooperation.”

State Supreme Court ruled in March to deny the district’s appeal
to reverse a 15-page decision from Commonwealth Court.

Yesterday Robby Soave
broke down how the federal government was bullying colleges
into policing their students’ sexual activity by lowering the
standard of evidence required for disciplinary action up to
expulsion, effectively denied due process.

In McKeesport, on the other hand, teachers who admit to having
sex on school property (not part of their job, probably even in
some teachers handbooks as a “don’t”), and one, a union leader,
accused of harassing a coworker (both had spouses), can spend
months in court and get their jobs back (so having sex on school
property, not a firable offense—remember only DiBattista was found
to have been offered immunity, to testify against a teacher she
accused of harassing her). Yet employment as a teacher ought to be
considered a privilege, and certainly a position more privileged
than students trying to purchase (by cash or credit) a higher
education.

Meanwhile on Staten Island, school administrators showed their
ability to avoid having to take responsibility for making decisions
by taking a “by the book” zero tolerance-like approach. A New Dorp
High School culinary arts teacher was “reprimanded” for allowing
three students to try a half-teaspoon of cinnamon during a class
about spice. An anonymous tipster complained the teacher allowed
students to perform the “cinnamon challenge,” even though none of
the students involved reported any illness, they consumed less
cinnamon than the challenge and had water to wash the drying taste
down with. Is it too much to ask those educated and paid to
administer education to use their informed discretion and purported
expertise to make common sense decisions, and policies, rather than
creating a system of reprimands and firings and rehirings that they
can claim to be running on autopilot?