A teacher marched out of her Queens school in handcuffs for allegedly throwing a book at a child’s face is suing the city Department of Education after an arbitrator fined her — but didn’t fire her.
Loretta Myers, 50, who has spent two years inside a DOE “rubber room,” insists the accusation is “demonstrably false,” and the $3,500 fine leaves a black mark on her record.
“In this whole DOE court system, you’re guilty until proven innocent and unfortunately you’re almost never proven innocent,” she told The Post.
The January 2019 incident unfolded at PS 253 in Far Rockaway, when a troublesome 9-year-old boy tossed a notebook toward a garbage can, hitting Myers in the leg, according to court records. The child then told his mom Myers threw the book back at him, hitting him in the face — a claim the veteran teacher steadfastly denies.
Criminal charges against Myers were later dismissed when the boy’s parent failed to show up in court, Myers said in legal papers accusing school administrators of pushing the case against her to placate the child’s “belligerent mother.”
Myers insists administrators falsified records to damage her credibility. An arbitrator rejected the falsification allegation, finding Myers guilty last month of throwing the book at the child and issuing the fine.
“If they truly believed that I did what they accused me of, how dare they just slap me with a fine and send me back to the classroom?” Myers said.
The DOE said it would review the lawsuit, with a spokeswoman adding, “We take disciplinary action based on the facts, and an independent arbitrator found that Ms. Meyer’s misconduct warranted a fine.”
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