Manhasset teacher may face harsher penalty after 'inappropriate' contact with student
A tenured Manhasset high school theater teacher found to have had "inappropriate physical contact" with a student during a play rehearsal four years ago deserves a harsher penalty than a $12,500 fine and sensitivity training, according to a Nassau judge's ruling.
The state-appointed hearing officer who rejected Manhasset’s request to terminate teacher Robbert Fessler a year ago "failed to appreciate the harm that the respondent’s behavior may have on a child, both presently and in the future," acting Nassau Supreme Court Justice Catherine Rizzo wrote in her decision Friday.
Rizzo sent the teacher’s disciplinary case back to the hearing officer, Michael Capone, "for re-determination of a new penalty."
At issue is Fessler's physical demonstration of how an actor in the high school performance of "Hamlet" should kiss the arm of his female counterpart during one of the final rehearsals in the fall of 2021.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- A Nassau judge said a hearing officer’s decision to return to the classroom a teacher found to have had “inappropriate physical contact” with a student “fails to protect students from future harm.”
- The hearing officer had rejected the Manhasset district’s request to terminate teacher Robbert Fessler because “demonstrating through physical contact is sometimes required” for theater teachers.
- Acting Nassau Supreme Court Justice Catherine Rizzo sent the teacher’s case back to hearing officer Michael Capone “for re-determination of a new penalty.” Fessler said his attorney will appeal.
Fessler, who has been on paid leave since the Manhasset district opened an investigation in January 2023, said his attorneys plan to appeal.
"A reasonable and impartial arbitrator listened to countless hours of witness testimony over a half-year period and decided that the superintendent’s case against me was fundamentally flawed," Fessler said by email. "I have no doubt that any reasonable person reviewing the case will concur with the arbitrator’s decision and that we will win the appeal we are in the process of filing."
In a statement, Manhasset Board of Education President Ted Post said: "While we acknowledge the court’s decision we cannot comment on ongoing personnel matters."
State law says public school districts must win the right to terminate tenured teachers in New York by proving their case before a hearing officer who then determines a penalty. The hearing officer, Capone, said by email, "I prefer not to comment."
Capone found Fessler guilty in July 2024 of misconduct in the fall of 2021. The hearing officer's decision came 13 months after the district filed disciplinary charges.
To illustrate how a student should "engage in aggressive conduct" in a scene toward another student, Fessler "grabbed the student’s arm, and ... repeatedly simulated kissing the student’s arm, progressively moving up towards the student’s neck as he did so," Capone wrote.
Fessler did so, Capone said, "to ensure his students understood his interpretation of the play and the actions the characters were expected to portray."
Capone said Fessler did not inform the student or get her consent before he demonstrated "how to kiss her arm and grab her waist to pull her into his body."
Capone said the misconduct did not warrant termination because a theater teacher has more leeway than a typical instructor.
"Certainly, in a classic or traditional classroom setting, any physical contact would be prohibited except to protect the safety of a child," he wrote. "However, there is ample evidence that in the non-traditional instruction of acting and performing, demonstrating through physical contact is sometimes required."
Fessler told Newsday a year ago the district is "trying to infuse this case with the whiff of sexual impropriety — perhaps because I am the only out gay teacher who advocates for all underrepresented students."
The Manhasset Board of Education filed a lawsuit a year ago seeking to overturn the decision, an unusual step for a school district, a 2023 Newsday investigation found.
Manhasset, in its court papers, said the penalty of a $12,500 fine and Fessler ordered to undergo sensitivity training at the district's expense "fails to protect students from future harm."
Rizzo agreed, writing that Fessler "was found guilty of making unwanted and inappropriate physical contact with a student, and the penalty imposed is insufficient to overcome the strong public policy of protecting the welfare of children."
Capone also found Fessler guilty of not wearing a mask in the rehearsal at a time when they were mandated at schools and of traveling to Florida in February 2023 during work hours without notifying his supervisor.
Manhasset paid Fessler, 63, of Sea Cliff, $146,248 during the 2023-24 school year, the most recent year available, according to Newsday's database of teacher salaries.
The district said in response to a Freedom of Information Law request in August 2024 that it had paid $203,839 in legal fees in Fessler's disciplinary case and subsequent lawsuit.
Jim Baumbach is an award-winning investigative reporter at Newsday, where he has worked since 1998. He spent two decades in the sports department, where he covered every professional team and league, including events such as the Super Bowl and World Series.
