Posted on 03/23/2005 12:58:59 PM PST by explodingspleen
Probe: Teach couldn't pass N.Y. exam so paid man $2 to take it
|
|||||||
|
|||||||
|
|||||||
|
|||||||
A Bronx teacher who repeatedly flunked his state certification exam paid a formerly homeless man with a developmental disorder $2 to take the test for him, authorities said yesterday.
The illegal stand-in - who looks nothing like teacher Wayne Brightly - not only passed the high-stakes test, he scored so much better than the teacher had previously that the state knew something was wrong, officials said. "I was pressured into it. He threatened me," the bogus test-taker Rubin Leitner told the Daily News yesterday after Special Schools Investigator Richard Condon revealed the scam. "I gave him my all," said Leitner, 58, who suffers from Asperger's syndrome, a disorder similar to autism. "He gave me what he thought I was worth." Brightly, 38, a teacher at one of the city's worst schools, Middle School 142, allegedly concocted the plot to swap identities with Leitner last summer. If he failed the state exam again, Brightly risked losing his $59,000-a-year job. "I'm tired of taking this test and failing," Brightly told Leitner, according to Condon's probe. "I want you to help me." Along with being much smarter than Brightly, Leitner is 20 years older. He also is white and overweight while Brightly is black and thin. Yet none of those glaring differences apparently worried Brightly. "He said no one would ever know," Leitner said outside the Brownsville, Brooklyn, building he has called home since briefly living on the streets. The two men met years ago at Brooklyn College where Leitner earned bachelor's and master's degrees in history in the late 1970s, and Brightly got a bachelor's degree in 1992. After meeting in the alumni office, Leitner began tutoring the teacher as he struggled to pass the state exam, officials said. But the relationship took a bizarre turn just weeks before the test last July, authorities said.
"He got tired of flunking it," said Leitner. "That was the thing that sparked this desperate act." Brightly allegedly helped Leitner obtain a counterfeit state identification card that showed Leitner's photo with Brightly's name. Using the bogus ID, the pair conned city educrats into issuing Leitner a school ID card to use on test day, authorities said. On July 17, Brightly allegedly picked up Leitner at his home and drove him to Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn, where the test was given. The teacher allegedly came back after the test was over and drove Leitner back home, officials said. After the exam, the state began investigating Brightly's passing score. He sent Leitner to meet with officials, and Leitner claimed to be Brightly - but the ruse failed, authorities said. When The News went to Brightly's Mount Vernon home yesterday, a man who strongly resembled him insisted Leitner took the test on his own. The man, who appeared to be in his late 30s, denied being Brightly - saying he was the teacher's son. Brightly has been charged with coercion, falsifying business records and other crimes. He has been taken out of his Baychester classroom pending the outcome of the case. About 19,000 teachers across the state take the certification exam each year and roughly 95% pass. Teachers are required to be certified - but the city has a temporary waiver from the state because the Education Department has not been able to find enough qualified instructors. With Bethany Jenkins Wayne Brightly's city schools career:
Originally published on March 23, 2005 |
Give the homless man the job.
First name... Not-Too
Absolutely - just require that he take a shower first !
LOL -- a "developmentally disabled" (PC-to-English translation: mentally retarded and/or mentally ill) homeless man (PC-2-E: street person) is more intellectually capable than a teacher paid by the hapless taxpayers of New York.
well now the homeless guy should get the certification so he deserves the job
He may be homeless but he does have a Master's Degree in History.
To be fair, Asperger's syndrome is very different from being retarded or mentally ill.
Of course, it's also true that pretty much any idiot could pass most of the teacher's certification exams I've seen.
You have no clue as to what Asperger's syndrome is, do you? There are many people who suffer from Asperger's who are not only high functioning, but work in jobs requiring highly complex skill sets. It's rumored, with some good evidence, that Bill Gates suffers from Asperger's.
"He may be homeless but he does have a Master's Degree in History."
There's probably a joke in here about how valuable a masters degree in history is.
The test was racist! It knew when a black man was taking it.
When I started reading this I swear I thought it was from The Onion.
For those of you in Rio Linda, that means all you have to be able to do to pass it is read.
Black ink, white paper... Yup! Racist!
most certification test are based on 10th grade eqivalency.
This is sad on so many levels - that a paid teacher can't pass a test that a developmentally challenged person can, that the state would have a test that dumbed-down and still manage to hire someone too stupid to pass it, etc.
Yea, so does Bram something, the guy who developed bit torrent and he can solve a rubiks cube in 5 minutes or something.
People with Asperger's syndrome are probably better called savants.
Rubin Leitner should get the job
I missed the reference to Asperger's syndrome. That makes the situation (slightly) less absurd.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.