Gym Teacher Who Faked Sick, to be Tested for Actual Mental Illness

Brenna Stewart, the daughter of convicted so-called "terrorist lawyer" Lynne Stewart, is to undergo psychiatric testing after she was charged with providing phony doctors' notes claiming she was sick to get days off from her job as a gym teacher. Ironically, the fake notes, at least one of which she submitted to attend the sentencing of her mother, could land her in jail for up to seven years. Stewart was busted last year when an administrator at the school where she taught noticed that the phone number of the doctor's office on her notes was the same as that of Stewart's emergency contact number on file. Stewart's sister is an actual physician, but practices in Florida.

Lynne Stewart was convicted and sentenced to 28 months in prison for helping her client Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman smuggle messages from prison to his followers in Egypt. Because Rahman was a suspect on trial for terrorism, this was a breach of legal protocol for Stewart. However some felt the 28-month sentence was too short.

Her daughter's charges could wind up carrying a stiffer penalty. Forgery and possession of false documents could land Brenna Stewart in more hot water than her mother. A Bronx Supreme Court Judge, Steven Barrett, recently ordered that Brenna Stewart undergo psychiatric testing. Is there is the possibility that Stewart could be excused from faking physical sickness for having an actual mental illness? Stewart is currently free without bail.

A Harris poll taken conducted late last year showed that 32% of American workers called in sick to work sometime in the prior year when they were actually well. Some of the more unusual excuses included a case of whiplash from brushing one's hair, advisement from a psychic that harm would befall an employee if he or she went to work, and the old standby: "I can't come to work because my roommate locked all of my clothes in a shed."