Cindy Mauro was suspended for two years while her secondary school colleague Alini Brito was given a one-year penalty after a caretaker claimed to have spotted them ‘lying naked on the floor’.
But
the women denied the accusation, instead claiming that Mauro was giving
diabetic Brito sugar to increase her blood glucose levels after she
collapsed at James Madison High School in Brooklyn, New York, in 2009.
Supreme
Court Justice Alice Schlesigner this week said it was “irrational” if a
Department of Education (DOE) hearing officer to impose the term on
Mauro for the reasons he did, the New York Daily News reported.
The women had their suspension cases brought before separate hearing officers.
One imposed the shorter sentence on Brito but a second
officer suspended Mauro for two years, accusing her of having shown “no
remorse” and being a “bad role model” for students.
Both appealed the sentences and the case was sent before the Manhattan judge.
Schlesinger upheld the one-year penalty on Brito but said there was nothing to support the complaint about Mauro.
She
also noted that in the Appellate Division decisions almost identical
language was used so “it makes no sense for Mauro’s suspension to be
double that of Brito’s.”
The women have also complained about not
receiving back pay for the years they missed teaching, however the
judge refused to go into the issue without further eveidence.
