5.3. Phony Corporal Punishment Precedent

January 23, 1998 : 1) this is not previous corporal punishment allegations : rather, allegations at hands; 2) Verbal abuse ? I thought I was accused of pushing her out of the classroom : On January 23, 1998 I conducted yet another investigation involving his physically pushing D.D. out of his classroom after an altercation which took place in the presence of several other students (Walters' letter to Joyce Coppin, superintendent, dated 2/5/05). A liar ought to have a good memory, as the saying goes.

What happened was a trifle by Erasmus standards : 1/23/98 was the last day of the semester. D.D., a graduating senior decided to have "fun", which included cracking jokes, laughing, moving around in class, while a (second chance) test was taking place . My message was simple : "be quiet, or leave." D.D. cursed at me, and then turned the table on me : " physically pushing D.D. out of his classroom" (version 1 for local consumption) ; "Fofana verbally abused her" (version 2 for the OSI). Similar inconsistencies can be found in the J.S.'s case below.
D.D. did not come to testify : the charge was tossed.

October 9, 1996 : my first "corporal punishment" allegations. Walters and Coppin characterized an incident as corporal punishment, but would not report it to the OSICPU ! Out of charity ? No.
Since the OSICPU was likely to find the allegations meritless, Walters contacted Joyce Coppin who set up a caricature of a hearing whose outcome was a warning letter put in this teacher's file. It is an overused, abject scheme that goes like this : "we warned him/her before : cf. letter dated xx/xx/xx put in his file ; he is an unrepentant repeater". Never mind if the accused has never had a chance to defend himself and confront his accuser. The following transcripts refers to the alleged incident :

HEARING OFFICER : This is a seven-page document. The cover page on it is a letter dated October 9th , 1996 to Mrs. Joyce Coppin, C-O-P-P-I-N, Superintendent, Brooklyn High Schools Office, from Walters. And attached to that cover letter is a special -- I am sorry. Report of incident of corporal punishment. And I assume that the dean -- third page is entitled dean's official special report. And then attached on Page 5 is comprehensive accident (sic) report. Page 6 appears to be a medical note, and Page 7 is a handwritten note. I don't know by whom, but it looks like some statement of a student or somebody. I am not sure who this is, but that's what this document is. I am not sure that they should all be -- this is 1996.

MS MANDEL [Board of Ed's counsel] : Right. This is a notice document with regard to corporal punishment. I would rather -- without going into all the specifics, I wanted Ms. Walters to share with us what she had told Mr. Fofana back in 1996 regarding corporal punishment.

HEARING OFFICER : Okay. In that context, why don't you -- why don't you ask her what you want to ask her. [ I suspect that Mandel wanted to give Walters the opportunity to make a self-serving speech , but the Mr. Viani would not have it : you ask questions, she answers, that is my procedure]

MANDEL : Do you recognize that document ?

WALTERS : Yes, I do.

MANDEL : Did you prepare that document ?

WALTERS : Yes, I did.

MANDEL : Okay. Did you have an opportunity to discuss corporal punishment with Mr. Fofana ?

WALTERS : Most definetely.

MANDEL : Tell us your -- without specifics, what you told him and why ?

WALTERS : Okay. When the -- even before the charges, I said everyone --

LOWER [UFT lawyer] : I'm going to object to that. I'm sorry, ma'am. I need to address the Hearing Officer first. The testimony calls for discussion concerning an event in 1996 that is not charged in this incident. The document before you, as you've gone through this, contains various hearsay statements of witnesses who are not going to be produced in this hearing, because the incident is not the subject of charges and never was the subject of charges, and is not relevant in this proceeding. (...) To go into the circumstances surrounding an uncharged, unproven, hearsay-laden allegations for purposes of notice is improper.

[ The document was not allowed in the record : Walters and Coppin could not decide that I was guilty of a corporal punishment, and presented it later in a slick package as evidence of pattern behavior : the merit of such allegations must be submitted to the OSI and weighed in a fair hearing, if need be, where both sides could be heard : that is called due process.]