A five-panel appellate court has
ruled that having sex in a public school classroom is no reason to lose your
job.
Justices with the Manhattan
Appellate Division have ordered James Madison High School to reinstate two
lesbian teachers whom they fired after a janitor found them having sex inside a
classroom during a school event.
French teacher Cindy Mauro, 38, and
Spanish teacher Alini Brito, 34, went to a bar after school, then returned to
attend a school singing competition in January 2011.
They left the event and went into
Room 337, when the custodian found the pair engaged in sexual activity. Both
were naked from the waist up.
The school fired the pair, both of
whom had tenure.
The teachers denied any wrongdoing,
saying that Brito needed to get something to eat to stabilize her blood sugar,
and filed a lawsuit.
On Thursday, the panel ruled,
"The penalty of termination of unemployment is shockingly disproportionate
to [their] misconduct."
They added that the teachers had
gone beyond the call of duty by attending the school event, as they "were
not required to do so."
"They were both good at what
they did," their lawyer, Michael Valentine, said.
The opinion was signed by justices
Richard Andrias, Leland DeGrasse, Helen Freedman, Judith Gische, and Angela
Mazzarelli.
Bill Donohue of the Catholic League
said the lack of media coverage that the three-year-old story received
displayed a blatant double-standard.
"If two priests were caught
having sex in a classroom and were given the green light by church authorities,
it would be the lead story on the national evening news," he said.
"This is nothing more than a
passing local story," because the women were lesbians, public school
teachers, and had obtained tenure, conditions he said represent a
"trifecta."
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