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Elderly Teacher Claims She Was Fired Over Bathroom Breaks
By
Ben Yakas
Published Aug 3, 2011
Modified Aug 3, 2011
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Aug 3, 2011
Modified Aug 3, 2011
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An octogenarian teacher who says she was fired from her job because she couldn't physically take every kindergartener on a bathroom break is suing to get reinstated. And worst of all, the physically impaired 80-year-old Lillie Leon claims that the school set her up for failure: "I was expected to bathroom all of the children, boys and girls, at the same time, which is impossible. I really think it was an entrapment," Leon told the Post.
Leon, a grandmother of four who worked at PS 117 in Queens and has been teaching since 1978, contends that school officials ignored her repeated requests to teach first-graders, who wouldn't require supervision on bathroom breaks. Leon has bad knees, uses a cane, and had to walk across the cafeteria to the other side of the school from her assigned classroom to get to the girls' bathroom. Leon, who had no complaints on her record, is incredulous about the firing: "This principal's goal was to terminate me, really. I call it bullying. Just like we tell children about."
The DOE argues that the school did offer her a third-floor classroom, which Leon rejected because it was too dangerous: "When I spoke with the principal about the third-floor assignment, she said I should just take the elevator. But if there's a fire or a fire drill, what do I do?" In addition, the DOE said that Leon repeatedly complained to parents about the bathroom issue, leaving phone messages saying she wouldn't "bathroom" their kids or be a "baby sitter."
They also say she refused her reassignments, which an arbiter agreed with during her termination hearings: "The department asserts that Ms. Leon...simply refused to teach and engaged in ongoing and persistent insubordination," the report reads. Really, in this day and age, the DOE should just be glad she wasn't selling kids drugs on school property.
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bathroom breaks
DOE
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queens
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Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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