Faking Sick Days To Go To Your Mom's Sentencing

We love stories about public school teachers and sick days: There was the guy who wanted some time off to serve a jail sentence, the principal who was actually conducting an orchestra, and, our favorite, the teacher who took sick days when performing as a wrestler for the WWE. But we would never have dreamed that Lynne Stewart, the controversial lawyer who was convicted of aiding terrorist Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman while he was in prison, would even be involved in one!

The NYC schools investigator found that Stewart's daughter, Brenna who is a physical education teacher at the Bronx Leadership Academy, used a fake doctor's note as an excuse for the day she attended her mother's sentencing. The investigator also found that she used false documents for eight other sick days, some from her sister, a doctor in Florida. From the NY Times:

The investigation of Ms. Stewart began in January, when Paulette Franklin, the principal of the Bronx school, told the commissioner’s office that she had found discrepancies in the documents Ms. Stewart used to excuse her absences — specifically, that the phone number on two doctors’ notes matched Ms. Stewart’s emergency contact number; that a doctor’s note dated April 4, 2006, concerning absences that month specified the sick days as occurring in April 2005; and that the death certificate used to justify the day of bereavement leave in October 2005 had a falsified date of December 2005.

Ms. Franklin told investigators that this January’s letter aroused her suspicion because she recognized the doctor’s telephone number as being one of Ms. Stewart’s contact numbers, and because it “didn’t look professional.” She then examined Ms. Stewart’s personnel file.

We wonder if Stewart's colleagues saw her in the newspapers or on the news at various press conferences her mom had.

In 2005, Stewart used the death certificate of an aunt who died in 2002, and she also made up a doctor at NY Presbyterian for an April 2006 note. The schools investigator Richard Condon recommended that Stewart be fired. He also noted Stewart's scheme was "not terribly sophisticated." Totally - you put your friend's phone numbers on your fake sick day excuses. We imagine Stewart has never seen Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

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By Jen Chung in News on April 12, 2007 12:37 PM

Comments [rss]

amandabee

(as if everyone hasn't taken a sick day when they weren't actually sick.)

I haven't either. And I've never had a job where I'd get payout for my sick days if I didn't use them.

Still Not Amused

Well wouldn't that be a reason for "Personal Days" ? I mean come on, She went to see her mother's sentencing !!!! I know it was the wrong thing to do and all but look at this for what it was and not because she broke a rule . What about those teachers that use sick days to go on cruises with friends ? That in my opinion would be something that they might want to severely curb !

matukonyc

Perhaps Ms. Stewart did not want it publicly known who her mother is, or perhaps like many of us, felt that she had to lie to justify taking a day off for what is actually a very good reason.

Try telling some bosses that your grandmother died and you need two weeks off. Now, my grandmother raised me, so I would certainly need that time, but I would also probably lie and say that my mother died.

bklynd

Nah, fibbing is one thing, but submitting fake documentation is bullshit.

This is a strange story, though, since it involves her mother's trial. Certainly it wouldn't make the news if she were some random schlub.

WT Economist

(as if everyone hasn't taken a sick day when they weren't actually sick.)

I haven't.

City employees with more than 10 years of service are generally paid 1/2 the value of their accumulated sick leave when they leave city service. (Change agencies and you can sometimes lose out). They receive 12 sick days in addition to starting with 20 paid vacation days.

Every now and then, someone gets the bright idea of taking away the 1/2 value of paid sick days. Which would further reduce the compensation of public employees who do their job, versus those who do not, adding injury to insult.

mm

as if everyone hasn't taken a sick day when they weren't actually sick. isn't the nyc public school system desperate for teachers? the threat of punishment for one who happened to get caught doing what everyone else does seems extreme.