School officials are trying to find out if they have an elementary school teacher in Brooklyn who’s a junkie with a seven-bag-a-day heroin habit and gets high during lunch periods.
“We cannot tolerate a teacher with a heroin habit in the classroom,” said interim Schools Chancellor Harold Levy. “It’s absurd.”
Staffers at a Manhattan clinic alerted the Board of Ed about the druggie teacher when they went to court seeking permission to release her medical records.
Court papers filed by Gracie Square Hospital described the woman as “Jane Doe,” a 32-year-old fourth-grade special-education teacher at PS 134 in the Kensington section of Brooklyn.
Frank Bruno, Gracie Square’s CEO, wants the Board of Ed to have the records “to protect the young special education students entrusted to [Jane] Doe’s care from harm.”
The papers say the teacher has “abused alcohol for 15 years, heroin for 3 years and marijuana for 20 years.”
Levy said based on the limited information in the hospital’s court papers, school officials believe they know who the teacher is and she has “a significant file” – but they want to be sure of her identity.
Doctors at Gracie Square say they found out about the teacher when she checked herself into the East 76th Street clinic for treatment in December, while schools were on Christmas break.
She left the hospital after five days and “suffered a relapse immediately after demanding her discharge,” the hospital’s chief executive officer, Frank Bruno, said in court papers.
She returned to the hospital during spring break on April 24, suffering from depression and heroin withdrawal, the filings said.
“Upon admission, Ms. Doe stated that she was using 7-8 bags of heroin a day and smoking 2-3 joints of marijuana,” Bruno said.
“Most disturbingly, … [she told a psychiatrist] that during her lunch hour she routinely used heroin and returned to school late. In fact, she [said] she was surprised that she had not been fired.”
She checked out on Sunday and went back to work, the filings said. Bruno said she’s apparently “ambivalent” about her need for treatment.
Randi Weingarten, the head of the teachers union, said she was “very concerned” about the allegations.
“If you have a substance abuse problem you should be in treatment, and not in the classroom,” she said.
Levy said he wants the teacher gone, and that he’ll send lawyers to court to help the hospital’s case.