September 21, 2012

Sexual harassment at the High School for Legal Studies.

Theresa Reel, 52, claimed the students harassed her and NYC has given her $450,000 to go away:
When she told then-Principal Denise Morgan that she made a student leave the class for sexual comments, the official’s response was: “And how does that threaten you?”..
And a 2008 letter from the Department of Education chastised the social studies educator for “inappropriate attire,” described as a “low-cut, V-neck lace top.”...
Interesting that this all happened at the High School for Legal Studies. Turns out it's "a D-rated school which had less than 60% of its students graduate in 2009." And "in 2010 when teachers were caught taking a lavish, taxpayer-funded junket and students were busted for using cell phones to film brawls and sex acts."

22 comments:

X said...

look for the union label

Sorun said...

Legal Studies courses are probably of the type: "Prison Guard Opportunities in NYC."

bagoh20 said...

Dammit!

If my kid did that stuff, he'd be washing her car and cutting her grass for a year. I bet the parents instead attacked her in support of their kids behavior. The parents should be paying some of that settlement.

edutcher said...

If she was 20 years younger and more of a babe, I could buy it.

Actually, it probably was the other way around (if you've seen photos of some of those older teachers who've had sex with their students...).

john said...

Polish whip cream licking.
Filming sex acts.

Some kids have all the fun.

Shouting Thomas said...

Wow!

Rock & Roll High School!

MadisonMan said...

So this is a High School that focuses on teaching kids how to be Legal Secretaries, or something like that?

Why does it exist -- especially given its track record of non-success?

ricpic said...

Teach guilty fo lack ob duh black!

KCFleming said...

The apex of liberal culture.

TMink said...

bag of mostly water, I agree completely. The majority of the educational problems in America are caused by undersocialized children from single parent homes where the mom does not or cannot supervise and/or socialize her children into being citizens. Instead, these children are feral and act it.

You on the other hand, discipline your children. I bet they grow up to be citizens!

Thanks for that.

Trey

PatCA said...

I clicked through only to confirm my biased fear: yes, this is a public high school.

The kids apparently go to "legal studies" high to prepare them for a lifetime of shuttling in and out of the criminal justice system, the vat into which the public school system dumps them.

Bryan C said...

"Why does it exist -- especially given its track record of non-success?"

Because the government gives money to people to make it exist?

And if you want success, the argument always goes, they'll need more of that money.

Anonymous said...

Amateurs.

Known Unknown said...

Reel said at the Woodside, Queens, home she shares with her cat.

The Daily News certainly knows how to write in between the lines.

Crunchy Frog said...

“I am very comfortable with the professional manner in which I responded to this teacher’s concerns,” she told The News.

Sure you are, lady. As long as you're comfortable, everyone else should be as well.

Peter said...

Well, The School for Legal Studies doesn't claim to prepare their students for legal careers.

So, what do they do?


"The School for Legal Studies empowers students with understanding, respect, and civic responsibility. Through fostering critical thinking skills, students are encouraged to become advocates for families, communities, and global justice. We are committed to academic excellence, enabling our students to be life-long learners and leaders for the 21st Century."

Got that? They're empowering, fostering advocacy, and teaching how to learn how to learn.

Or something.

http://schools.nyc.gov/SchoolPortals/14/K477/AboutUs/Overview/default.htm

BTW, "legally acceptable reasons for discharging students" are listed at the link below. "Sexual harassment of a teacher" does not seem to be one of them.

http://docs.nycenet.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-15/A-240.pdf

Dust Bunny Queen said...

You on the other hand, discipline your children. I bet they grow up to be citizens!


....who will work their asses off, pay exorbitant taxes to support the feral, worthless children who have grown up into criminals and professional welfare scammers. And, while his children are being extorted to feed these useless drains on society, they being told that they are racist pigs for resenting being a serf and cash cow.

TMink said...

DBQ, that about sums it up.

Good thing the 51% are getting angry. The able bodied moochers will soon have the choice to scrounge up or create a job for themselves or hit the soup kitchen line.

That will be a good thing.

Trey

Unknown said...

They need to rebrand that school. The High School for Aspiring Congresscritters.

MadisonMan said...

Through fostering critical thinking skills, students are encouraged to become advocates for families, communities, and global justice. We are committed to academic excellence, enabling our students to be life-long learners and leaders for the 21st Century

Ugh. Edu-speak babble. This is what Ed Psych PhDs come up with. I see this kind of verbiage all the time at the local Tech College.

Unknown said...

I am not an attorney and I would say that that is really ridiculous.

Unknown said...

Been a while since this made to news but I've just seen this pop up in search results recently. I thank everyone for the coverage and comments though I think being too snarky about the students misses the point. The issue in this case was a school's responsibility for preventing and remediating sexual harassment that is perpetrated by students against faculty. This was an unsettled area of law and is still not entirely clear. In any event, I was pleased that the matter was favorably resolved in the teacher's favor.

Joshua Parkhurst
www.joshuaparkhurst.com