Shine a light on teacher misconduct

Most teachers across Long Island are excellent role models who care deeply about their students, treat them well, and would never do anything to hurt them.

But some educators have been accused of disturbing, sometimes egregious behavior — yet are protected by a system that shields them from repercussions, allows them to keep working or at least continue to be paid, and prevents information about the wrongdoing from becoming public.

Who's protecting the students and the taxpayers?

A recent exhaustive investigation by Newsday reporters Jim Baumbach and Joie Tyrrell unveiled the troubling way New York State and its school districts handle teacher misconduct.

The spotlight helps. But the system will shift toward protecting children only if state officials and lawmakers recognize the problem and make sweeping changes.

The Newsday probe found that Long Island public school districts persuaded 103 tenured educators to resign and negotiated the departures of another 114 following accusations of misconduct that included physical and sexual abuse. Through confidential settlements that often excluded details of the misconduct, school districts reprimanded teachers, cut ties with them, or even paid them — with taxpayer funds — to leave. Often, that allowed teachers to simply move on to another school or district.

DISCIPLINE IS SLOW

Those settlements came because school officials looked to avoid a state disciplinary process known as 3020-a. Although that process could result in stronger action, it's expensive and absurdly slow, taking an average of three years for any action, during which a teacher can stay employed and even return to a classroom.

Looming over all of this, unsurprisingly, is the state's largest teachers union. New York State United Teachers officials emphasize the need for due process, saying the current disciplinary system is appropriate and effective, that it has quickened in recent years, and that current state law "is working."

It's not. 

Consider a few cases that illustrate the system's severe shortcomings.

• William Floyd physical education teacher Jason Brodsky was accused in 2019 of acting inappropriately with a female eighth grade student. The district fined him and directed him, in a mind-boggling settlement and accompanying reprimand letter, to "refrain from conducting private one-on-one meetings with any students, and specifically with Asian, female students in particular." Brodsky, whose case was reported to the state Education Department, was transferred to the district's alternative elementary school and still has his teaching license.
• Commack High School science teacher Vincent Cericola reached a settlement in 2019 after he exchanged inappropriate messages with female students. Then he remained in the classroom, acted inappropriately again, and reached another settlement in 2022, at which point he resigned.
• Mineola science teacher Michael Mildon reached three different settlements, in 2013, 2018 and 2019, first after making physical contact with a female middle school student and then after accusations of inappropriate behavior with colleagues. He resigned in February of this year, 10 years after his first suspension.

If these descriptions of wrongdoing seem vague, or raise more questions than answers, that's the fault of a system that allows important details to remain under wraps.

DARKNESS SHROUDS PROCESS

Everything that happens with problematic teachers — whether a settlement, disciplinary process, resignation, termination or payoff — too often happens in the dark. That makes it shockingly easy for a teacher who has been disciplined to leave one district and join another, or to maintain the same job even after multiple settlements.

NYSUT officials argue that a teacher's rights to privacy and due process preclude the public's right to know. Certainly, teachers have due process rights and can be targeted by false claims. But the deepest concern should be making sure students are protected. As with the Catholic Church's priest sexual abuse scandal, or bad behavior by police or other public servants, covering up a teacher's wrongdoing allows that misconduct to happen again.

New York must do more to champion open access to settlement and disciplinary action information, requiring more disclosure while keeping the children's identities concealed. Florida posts a searchable database of teachers who negotiated settlements after misconduct charges were filed. That's a good model. Parents have the right to know the conduct of those teaching their children. Taxpayers have the right to know whether the educators they're paying are behaving badly.

But the state must go further. School districts rely too heavily on settlements as a way out of sticky messes. State lawmakers should consider prohibiting confidential settlements in the more damning cases, such as when children are abused. And clearly, reforms already made to 3020-a haven't gone far enough. The state Education Department must do more, whether by adding staff or changing policies to act more quickly.

State and school officials spend a lot of time and public money determining how and what our teachers teach. But they themselves have a lesson to learn: Their top job is to keep our students safe.