01-29-2002, 04:05 PM
Quote:Teachers Face More
Discipline Complaints
1514 cases were
substantiated in '01 probes
Karen Chavis didn't think it was a big deal to bring a water bottle into class.
Teacher Jerry Selkowitz thought otherwise and ordered her to put it away. When the 12-year-old Staten Island student didn't move fast enough, Selkowitz allegedly pulled out a pocketknife, pointed the blade at the girl's cheek and threatened to pop the plastic bottle.
Karen Chavis, 12, of Staten Island, says Selkowitz pointed knife at her.
"He looked like he was crazy," said Karen, a seventh-grader at Intermediate School 72 on Ferndale Ave.
Selkowitz, who was arrested on Jan. 4, is one of thousands of city teachers accused in recent years of shoving, hitting, threatening and pummeling students.
Although teachers are forbidden to use physical force to discipline students, a Daily News investigation found that such allegations against teachers are rising.
Last year, 4,326 city teachers were accused of corporal punishment — 200 more than the year before, Board of Education records show.
Outpacing the rise in complaints was a 36% jump in the number of charges substantiated by principals or Board of Education investigators.
A total of 1,514 cases were substantiated — meaning some evidence was found to support the charge — last year. That's 400 more than in 2000. Among the charges:
A Bronx teacher partially severed a student's finger.
A Staten Island teacher punched and dragged a student.
A teacher's aide in Brooklyn was arrested last Thursday for losing his temper and allegedly smacking an 11-year-old special education student in the legs with a stick.
Board of Education officials contend the increase in incidents is not a reflection of rampant student abuse, but the result of efforts to make it easier to report errant teachers and investigate allegations more seriously.
Teachers union leaders note the vast majority of allegations against teachers are not proven.
And a union report found that more than 1,000 teachers were assaulted by students in the 1998-99 school year.
"No one is condoning the use of force. But the reality is that principals are told to report everything, real or not, and there are kids who have figured out the way to get a teacher is to make a false claim," said United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten. To parents, though, the numbers are troubling.
Kerry Selkowitz was put on administrative duty after alleged knife incident.
"This is not right, what is happening. I know teaching is a tough job, but adults can't take out their anger on our kids," said Karen's mother, Sharon Chavis.
Karen said that after Selkowitz pointed the knife at her on Jan. 3, he pulled out another knife with a larger blade, waved it before the class and said that, as a science teacher, he was allowed to carry it.
A dozen other students in the class confirmed Karen's account to investigators. "Nobody could believe a teacher was acting this way," Karen said. "Kids act that way, not teachers. It was scary."
Selkowitz, 52, was yanked from the classroom and placed on duty in the District 31 administrative office pending the outcome of an investigation.
Along with criminal charges of menacing and endangering the welfare of a child, the veteran math and science teacher faces dismissal by the Board of Education.
Selkowitz, speaking outside his Staten Island home, said he could not discuss the charges. But he waved his hand dismissively when asked if he pointed a knife at Karen's cheek.
"I probably was not within an arm's length of her," he said. He said the second knife actually was a "tool kit."
HOLY SHIT! :eek: :eek: :eek:
I thought schools were supposed to promote non violence in the class room. Shit, I would have been shot of this shit happened while I was in HS. This is just further proof how "us" as a whole are fuckin doomed.