A social-studies teacher suspended for 14 years for refusing to take a psychiatric test finally relented and returned to the classroom — only to pull out a foot-long knife on his students.
Ronald Grassel, now 66, was suspended without pay in 1998 from Harry Van Arsdale HS in Brooklyn. He was ordered to undergo a mental-health exam for bizarre behavior — dumping crumpled union literature on a conference table out of frustration over alleged inattention to his complaints, and reporting, in his description, “a brutal and vicious attack which took place on myself . . . I have injuries from the neck up.” But he refused.
After years of protracted court fights, Grassel finally agreed to the psych test in 2012. A shrink declared him fit to teach.
Grassel returned to the payroll in September 2012 as a roving substitute — making top teacher pay of $100,049, now bumped up to $102,060.
But a year later Grassel was sent to the rubber room after complaints of misconduct at the East New York Family Academy middle-high school.
Grassel failed to control his sixth-grade class. His students talked, laughed, acted out and played games instead of paying attention to him, records show.
Grassel then pulled out a kitchen knife — 12 inches long, with an 8-inch blade — from a desk drawer and waved it for all to see, a probe by schools investigator Richard Condon found.
“You have to be quiet,” Grassel warned, according to witnesses.
“You were acting like a bunch of idiots,” he told the class. “Why does a knife make you act like stupid people?”
In another class, Grassel yanked a stool out from under a student, causing him to fall, records state.
Hearing officer Marcus Winters agreed Grassel should be fired.
Grassel could not be reached for comment.