How Do You Tutor the Dead

Yikes! The Department of Education claims that a teacher charged the city for tutoring a child who was dead. According to the DOE, Cheryl Edwards said she spent 154.5 hours tutoring a sick 15-year-old student between January 23 and June 12 and received $5,864.82. The catch: In mid-January, the boy's mother took him to Vietnam (their native country), where he died on January 29 after 6 days in a hospital.

The Department of Education's investigators found out about the false charges when another parent complained that Edwards hadn't shown up for a tutoring session in October. Edwards denies the charges, but DOE Commisioner of Investigations Richard Condon said, "She might not have known that he was dead, but she knew what the mother told her, which was that she didn't need home tutoring anymore because her boy was dying. What she knew is she didn't have to show up there any more."

The DOE is moving to fire Edwards, who teaches at PS 288 in Coney Island. Firing teachers is not something that's easily done, either.