Teh One Who Knocks
08-03-2011, 03:03 PM
BY Jose Martinez - NY DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
http://i.imgur.com/0eP80.jpg
An 80-year-old Queens kindergarten teacher who says she was fired because she complained about having to walk her young charges to the bathroom is suing to get her job back.
Lillie Leon, who has taught in the public school system for more than three decades, was notified last week that she had lost her job at Public School 117 in Briarwood, Queens. The grandmother of four filed suit in Manhattan in an attempt to overturn her expulsion for insubordination, after she was suspended in March.
"Teaching is my passion," Leon told the Daily News. "But I was put in a position where it was almost impossible for me to safeguard the safety of the children."
Leon, who worked in banking before becoming a teacher in 1978, contends school officials ignored her request to teach first-graders, who wouldn't require supervision on bathroom breaks.
Instead, Leon said, she was told she'd have to lead an entire class of kindergartners through a busy cafeteria any time one of the kids needed to use the restroom.
"You're dealing with 4- and 5-year-olds who can't fully control themselves," said her lawyer, Stewart Karlin. "And it's really not educationally appropriate to take all that time for restroom duties."
Not to mention, Karlin said, the octogenarian's bad knees.
"She teaches well but she can't really walk quickly," he said. "She's on a cane, she's 80 years old and she's got leg problems."
"Why would you even assign an 80-year-old teacher to a classroom without a bathroom?" he asked.
The girls' bathroom was on the opposite side of the school from her assigned classroom, Leon said, denying the Department of Education's charge that she refused to lead the students on the frequent breaks.
"We would have had to walk through the lunchroom when the older children were there," Leon said.
An arbitrator sided with the DOE, which alleged the elderly teacher stopped taking the 25 students on bathroom breaks, repeatedly complained to parents and refused to work in a third-floor classroom.
"When I spoke with the principal about the third-floor assignment, she said I should just take the elevator," Leon said. "But if there's a fire or a fire drill, what do I do?"
Leon's petition, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, also says school administrators assigned her Classroom 113, where she had previously complained about the air conditioning and where parents of kindergartners had griped about "filthy" conditions and desks that were built for second-graders.
A spokeswoman for the City Law Department said lawyers are reviewing the suit.
Leon, who also has a suit pending against the city in federal court, said she just wants to return to the classroom for another year before retiring. She was earning $100,049 a year, records show, and didn't appear to have had any past disciplinary problems.
"I know the children will miss me," she said. "Even from when I started at PS 117, the assistant principal would say that I had my own fan club."
http://i.imgur.com/0eP80.jpg
An 80-year-old Queens kindergarten teacher who says she was fired because she complained about having to walk her young charges to the bathroom is suing to get her job back.
Lillie Leon, who has taught in the public school system for more than three decades, was notified last week that she had lost her job at Public School 117 in Briarwood, Queens. The grandmother of four filed suit in Manhattan in an attempt to overturn her expulsion for insubordination, after she was suspended in March.
"Teaching is my passion," Leon told the Daily News. "But I was put in a position where it was almost impossible for me to safeguard the safety of the children."
Leon, who worked in banking before becoming a teacher in 1978, contends school officials ignored her request to teach first-graders, who wouldn't require supervision on bathroom breaks.
Instead, Leon said, she was told she'd have to lead an entire class of kindergartners through a busy cafeteria any time one of the kids needed to use the restroom.
"You're dealing with 4- and 5-year-olds who can't fully control themselves," said her lawyer, Stewart Karlin. "And it's really not educationally appropriate to take all that time for restroom duties."
Not to mention, Karlin said, the octogenarian's bad knees.
"She teaches well but she can't really walk quickly," he said. "She's on a cane, she's 80 years old and she's got leg problems."
"Why would you even assign an 80-year-old teacher to a classroom without a bathroom?" he asked.
The girls' bathroom was on the opposite side of the school from her assigned classroom, Leon said, denying the Department of Education's charge that she refused to lead the students on the frequent breaks.
"We would have had to walk through the lunchroom when the older children were there," Leon said.
An arbitrator sided with the DOE, which alleged the elderly teacher stopped taking the 25 students on bathroom breaks, repeatedly complained to parents and refused to work in a third-floor classroom.
"When I spoke with the principal about the third-floor assignment, she said I should just take the elevator," Leon said. "But if there's a fire or a fire drill, what do I do?"
Leon's petition, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, also says school administrators assigned her Classroom 113, where she had previously complained about the air conditioning and where parents of kindergartners had griped about "filthy" conditions and desks that were built for second-graders.
A spokeswoman for the City Law Department said lawyers are reviewing the suit.
Leon, who also has a suit pending against the city in federal court, said she just wants to return to the classroom for another year before retiring. She was earning $100,049 a year, records show, and didn't appear to have had any past disciplinary problems.
"I know the children will miss me," she said. "Even from when I started at PS 117, the assistant principal would say that I had my own fan club."