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Uh-oh - a teacher's attempt to make Newton's Third Law of Motion ("For every action force there is an equal, but opposite, reaction force.") more understandable may have backfired. The Daily News reports that 18 year teaching veteran Leonard Brown has been suspended from Benjamin Cardozo High School after a female student says he touched her breast.
He asked the student - from Cardozo's elite Da Vinci Math Science Institute - to hold her hands up against his and lean against his hands with all of her weight, he said. He also put his hands on her shoulders before the demonstration.Brown was removed the day after the incident and the special schools investigator Richard Condon has been looking into the case. One problem is that Cardozo has had a history of teachers' improper conduct with students, "including one who was falsely accused of exposing himself to students, one who allegedly had an affair with a student and another who was picked up in an Internet sex sting."Brown said he heard the girl claimed he touched her breast during the process - an allegation he denies.
"Assuming I wasn't moral and ethical, I'm not stupid," he said. "Do they think I'd be stupid enough to molest a girl in front of 34 witnesses? To me, this is absolutely insane."
Brown tells the Daily News, "Teachers are now seriously afraid to do anything with students other than stand behind a barrier and read, but I am a very hands-on teacher." Well, kudos to Brown for trying to engage his students, but maybe he should have asked a male student to participate in the demonstration.
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The only mistake he made was assuming that things were the way they used to be and that he was immune from one child uttering a single lie that could ruin his entire life.
Two out of my three friends who are teachers have been falsely accused of molestation by their students. Tabloids running with these stories to sell papers doesn't help, either.
"Well, kudos to Brown for trying to engage his students, but maybe he should have asked a male student to participate in the demonstration."
As if a male student couldn't make the same claim or, if you want to presume guilt, that he couldn't molest a male student? Come on Jen, that logic is nearly as sound as your grammar.
Yeah, b, but he would've had to grab the guy's behind or crotch for it to have been molestation in that context, which would've been a lot less likely under the circumstances.
On the one hand, I don't support presuming a girl is lying when this kind of thing comes up. On the other hand, the knee-jerk reaction to this kind of accusation is pretty disturbing in light of the fact that the Board of Ed can't seem to take action against teachers when something else comes up.
Well, I did think about the possibility of male students complaining, but given the demonstration involves the upper body, I decided to think girls would be more sensitive with their breasts (though there may have been boys with moobs). I admit it, I'm boob-ist.
"Boob-ist". PLEASE let that be a new blog!
While i don't advocate taking sides on this until all the facts are out, think back to when you were in high school:
Maybe your physics teacher gave you a lower score on a test than you thought you "deserved". How many times have you said "Damn that Mr/Ms/Mrs So-and-So is such an ass, we should egg his/her car." This is the modern equivalent of that.
As a dopey HS student, you don't think even 5 minutes past your actions, that this "innocent" little white lie out of revenge may ruin someone's life. Then the kid goes on with their life, with no sense of guilt or remorse because it's not their own life.
"On the one hand, I don't support presuming a girl is lying when this kind of thing comes up. On the other hand, the knee-jerk reaction to this kind of accusation is pretty disturbing in light of the fact that the Board of Ed can't seem to take action against teachers when something else comes up."
why don't we all wait to pass judgement until a full inquiry is concluded. i think that there are at least thiry-some-odd witnesses (give or take the students who might have been napping or texting, etc.) who haven't been heard. before you start throwing around terms like "knee jerk reaction", perhaps you should look at your own.
B, I was referring to the fact that the school suspended the teacher within days of a single accusation from a student.
Y'know, in today's climate it was just plain stupid for this teacher to have engaged in a demonstration that involved any physical touching of any student, no matter how trivial it might have seemed. Following a strict hands-off approach is really the only way to go.
I wonder if she had a big rack.
Watch the movie Pretty Persuasion as it address the issue of students trying to get back at their teacher by bringing up bogus sexual assault charges.
I know Dr. Brown, I go to Cardozo High School and I've had him as a teacher. He's a funny man and a tough grader, the kind of teacher who you either love or hate. I liked him, I was upset when this happened. I'm almost certain that there were no bad intentions behind what he did. He is a teacher who has never been afraid to do something like that and most of the time it is well received by the class, but here there may have been some sort of incidental contact and I think he might not have handled it properly and apologized when she approached him afterwards.