A Brooklyn teacher who “lost” two 4-year-olds from her class during a single school day can’t be fired by the Department of Education, an arbitrator ruled.
Instead, PS 59 teacher Tia Jackson was fined $5,000 for leaving the tots unattended on Jan. 23, 2014 — even though one kid left the school in 12-degree weather and wandered to his home a block away.
The boy, Symeir Talley-Jasper, knocked on his parents’ Bedford-Stuvyesant apartment door at 9:45 a.m. “without a coat” and with “his pants down to his knees,” according to legal papers filed by the family.
The other child was found alone in a darkened pre-K classroom while his classmates watched movies in the auditorium, according to official documents.
“[Jackson’s] failure to supervise [the students] was serious misconduct,” arbitrator James Brown concluded. “A pre-K teacher’s first responsibility is to ensure the safety of the youngest and arguably most vulnerable students in the school system.”
While Brown knocked Jackson for claiming it was other staffers in the auditorium who lost sight of the wandering wee ones, he credited her clean disciplinary record of more than seven years.
DOE officials said Jackson has been disciplined and is now a roving substitute earning $73,460.
Jackson’s union lawyer declined to comment, as did PS 59 principal Dawn Best.