Elderly Teacher Claims She Was Fired Over Bathroom Breaks

Lillie Leon (screenshot via News)

An octogenarian teacher who says she was fired from her job because she couldn't physically take every kindergartener on a bathroom break is suing to get reinstated. And worst of all, the physically impaired 80-year-old Lillie Leon claims that the school set her up for failure: "I was expected to bathroom all of the children, boys and girls, at the same time, which is impossible. I really think it was an entrapment," Leon told the Post.

Leon, a grandmother of four who worked at PS 117 in Queens and has been teaching since 1978, contends that school officials ignored her repeated requests to teach first-graders, who wouldn't require supervision on bathroom breaks. Leon has bad knees, uses a cane, and had to walk across the cafeteria to the other side of the school from her assigned classroom to get to the girls' bathroom. Leon, who had no complaints on her record, is incredulous about the firing: "This principal's goal was to terminate me, really. I call it bullying. Just like we tell children about."

The DOE argues that the school did offer her a third-floor classroom, which Leon rejected because it was too dangerous: "When I spoke with the principal about the third-floor assignment, she said I should just take the elevator. But if there's a fire or a fire drill, what do I do?" In addition, the DOE said that Leon repeatedly complained to parents about the bathroom issue, leaving phone messages saying she wouldn't "bathroom" their kids or be a "baby sitter."

They also say she refused her reassignments, which an arbiter agreed with during her termination hearings: "The department asserts that Ms. Leon...simply refused to teach and engaged in ongoing and persistent insubordination," the report reads. Really, in this day and age, the DOE should just be glad she wasn't selling kids drugs on school property.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Ben Yakas in News on August 3, 2011 1:36 PM

Comments [rss]

Beverly

There are many ways to resolve this problem. Perhaps a porta-pottie could be set up in the corner of her room. Also, it would be a problem for any teacher, 24 or 44, to hike one kid across the expanse of the walk, they are describing here. If there are more problems than this one, they really haven't proven it, as stated in the article. Another way to handle it is for the school board to buy out the rest of her retirement, so she would have full coverage. Schools have been, notoriously, callous in their support of staff and their needs. One example is the addition of 8 new classrooms built on the far end of the school with no way for a staffer to go to the restroom except to walk down a long hallway to the other side of the building. Another is the existence of an entire wing of a junior high that had no way for a staffer to go to the restroom except to use the
same restroom as the students. Add to that the need for privacy when changing one's tampax within stalls that have no doors on them. This is par for many big school systems. I know, because I lived both of these nightmares.

marco_esquandolas

Everybody hold up a second here. I don't think you're looking at this correctly. What if this woman wasn't 80, but say, 24? Ms. Leon is saying she has to take a group of 25 kindergardeners through the length of the entire school (including the cafeteria which contains older children) any time any one of her students had to use the bathroom. How could you expect any teacher to do that more than a dozen times a day, much less one with bad knees? They should just let her teach first grade next year like she asked for, and then she can retire.

Ms. Leon started teaching in 1978 and has had no complaints registered against her until now. Can you comprehend how rare that combination is in the New York City public school system?

Let this woman end her career with some dignity.

LICnative

If there was a fire, could Grandma Moses lead her charges out of harm's way? It's ok honey, the schools will suck if you're there or not.

Take your pension, you earned it. The City can hire a new, young go getter for half your money.

souper_crackers

Make way for the next generation, please. This problem is only going to get worse as we all beome responsible for providing our own retirement funds and social security dries up. I look forward to dying before I even hit middle management.

Samantha_Ga

If part of your job is to take children to the bathroom, and you can't, you can't do your job to it's full extent. They offered her a choice, and she refused.

Peanut_Butter

If you use a cane and have bad knees, you have no business teaching kindergarten.

JRod5417

I didn't even know that 80 year old schoolteachers existed.

BKExcuse

If you take time to read the article and believe what the school said, she seems like she's lazy and deserved to be fired. It looks like they tried to make reasonable accommodations multiples times but she was quite unreasonable.

F_14

This is the best picture you can post of this woman? Even when there is much more flattering image of her on the link cited? You suck.

FU Boy

While I don't really agree with what the DOE seems to have done here, I also don't agree with a physically impaired 80-year-old who works.

Or is this where our culture is going, if you're not one of the few on top, you work until you die?

Angela Burnfield Marsh

Some people have no choice to work at 80 yrs old and up, AND physically impaired, because the good old USA just doesn't leave room for people to retire anymore...or like my parents, you retire, then the company you worked for dwindles your benefits down to an unlivable amount, or SSI keeps taking money away from you....It is unfortunately where our culture is going in the land of the free. It's sad to see the elderly being forced to work this late in life, isn't it??

William

she's not being forced to work she likes working. She wants to continue her job.

Guest

Some people want to work until they die.

Unkle_Bob

If you haven't noticed, social services are getting chopped left and right.

So, yes, we're in a culture where if you're not at the top, you work until you die.